Bengaluru, Mar 24 (PTI) Karnataka received less than half of its allocation under the JJM due to its inability to utilise the already released funds, the CAG in its report said.
The report of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) on the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) for the 2019-24 period was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
“The state received only Rs 11,189 crore against the allocation of Rs 24,819.48 crore (45 per cent) from the Centre mainly due to its inability to utilise the already released funds,” the report said.
Noting that the poor fund utilisation under support activities was on account of reduced engagement of “Implementation Support Agencies”, it said, fund utilisation under water quality monitoring and surveillance declined from 50 per cent in 2019-20 to two per cent in 2023-24.
The non-utilisation resulted in infrastructural gaps in terms of shortage of laboratories for water testing, shortage of equipment etc, the CAG further said.
The mission emphasised on community involvement and community contribution, it said, adding that, “however, the community contributions in the state was negligible with only Rs 22.57 crore collected out of the expected Rs 1,594.90 crore.” The CAG further pointed out that although the initial mission period ended on March 31, 2024, the state was yet to provide Functional House Tap Connections to 24.52 lakh households (34 per cent) as of November 2024 out of the targeted 72.14 lakh households.
This was due to delays in tendering, entrustment of multiple works to contractors, entrustment of works before ensuring availability of land, executions hampered by delays in obtaining land clearances and providing approvals for structural and hydraulic designs, deficient preparation of DPRs etc, it said.
There were instances of works being dropped citing reasons of lesser number of households in the habitations and augmentation works exceeding Rs 1.50 lakh, it said, adding that “Five villages were incorrectly declared ‘Har Ghar Jal’ compliant and 21 villages were reported as 100 per cent functional household tap connections (FHTC) done though works were yet to be completed.” Meanwhile, another CAG report tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday said that only 5 per cent of households received mandated 100 days of employment under MGNREGA.
As per the CAG report on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme covering period from 2019-20 to 2023-24, although MGNREGA guarantees 100 days of employment to each demanding household, the demand for employment from the registered households did not exceed 48 per cent of the issued job cards during the audit period.
“Moreover, the number of households who were provided with at least 100 days of employment during the period was only five per cent and the majority of households were provided only 1 to 30 days of employment,” the report said.
Further stating that issue of job cards was pending for 34,499 beneficiaries who had applied for jobs, as of March 2024, the CAG said, it was observed in test-checked districts that the job cards did not adhere to the prescribed format and special job cards were not issued to differently abled persons.
Audit also observed that contrary to the scheme guidelines vendors were hired and paid for manual (labour-oriented) components under the scheme resulting in denial of employment opportunities to the beneficiaries.
There was a shortfall in conducting information, education and communication activities as well as Rozgar Diwas resulting in lack of awareness among beneficiaries regarding the rights/entitlements under the scheme, it said.
The unemployment allowance to be provided to the beneficiaries could not be assessed accurately due to non-maintenance of the demand register and incorrect recording of the demand for labour in the test-checked Grama Panchayats, the report found.
The unemployment allowance assessed payable for the period 2019-20 to 2023-24, amounting to Rs 1.28 crore, was also pending for payment to the beneficiaries, it added. PTI KSU KH
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