Hyderabad: Improper planning, delays in submission and approval of designs, and other reasons have resulted in the state government missing its irrigation targets, claimed the CAG report.
According to the CAG report for FY2015-16 tabled in the Assembly on Monday, the state government has provided irrigation facility to only 13,900 acres as against its two-year target of 52,000 acres. “There were instances of conferring undue benefits to the agencies with changes in the basic parameters or owing of agencies,” the CAG alleged.
The CAG said that there were consistent savings across the projects and across the years and there were also reductions from original grants through reappropriation in the last six years.
The CAG found fault with the government for not complying with the suggestions of Central Water Commission relating to the adoption of rainfall, runoff relationship and to review flood discharges and establish gauzing stations at dam sites.
As a result, audit could not verify the scientific basis for calculation of dependable yield for the projects. The auditor general also found fault with the government for not following its own guidelines in the implementation of the farm loan waiver scheme.
“Because of this, some banks got benefited while some eligible farmers were deprived of interest waiver. The agriculture department did not verify the crop loans taken by farmers from other district bank branches and no social audit was conducted to eliminate duplicate financing of beneficiaries. Taking this as an advantage, some banks claimed excess interest of Rs 184 crore,” the report claimed.
On the other hand, the CAG report noted some banks did not claim the interest waiver, though it was stipulated in the scheme resulting in eligible farmers being deprived of waiver of interest to an extent of Rs 66 crore.
The CAG in its report said verification of beneficiaries under farmer family norm was conducted without Aadhaar numbers. Crop loans to Rythu Mitra groups and Rythu Sangams were waived against the scheme guidelines to treat farmer families as units.
