Belagavi: CAG picks holes in lease of govt land, management of solid waste
Belagavi: The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Monday, has found that the state government has handed over revenue land through grants/lease to private parties, which had not applied for it or were simply ineligible for it.
In one instance, the government granted 47 acres and 21 guntas to 11 beneficiaries without receiving applications from them and in another, it gave 117 acres to 24 beneficiaries, who did not satifsty the eligibility criteria, the report said.
In another violation, CAG found that 30 guntas were given to two political parties and 15 acres to an association for residential purposes although there is no provision for this under the law. In 10 instances, 390 acres and 38 guntas of land, which were not available for disposal, were granted to a private party, it noted.
What’s more, the government gave concession of Rs 19.61 crore in five cases without the beneficiaries applying for it and Rs 176.01 crore in concession in 51 cases to those who were ineligible for it, the CAG said. Also noting that the government had suffered a loss of Rs 17.83 crore in 30 cases by adopting a lesser guidance value, it urged it to maintain an electronic database of all grants/lease of its land to private parties and fix the land price on the principles of the Central Valuation Committee. On Solid Waste Management (SWM), it said the government’s assessment of it was unrealistic. Pointing out that the state policy of 2004 was neither fully operational, nor revised in accordance with the SWM Rules, 2016, it said the detailed project reports on SWM prepared by the urban local bodies under the Swachh Bharat Mission failed to adhere to the prescribed methodology of estimating waste generation and lacked data.
Though the requisite committees were formed at the state level, no committees wereset up at the district and ULB levels in any of the test checked districts, leading to poor implementation of the SWM plans, it added.
