THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out serious lapses on the part of Thiruvananthapuram corporation right from issuing the permit to the controversial residential complex-cum-shopping mall at Pattoor as well as in preventing the construction defying court orders.
The CAG report on local self-government institutions tabled in the Assembly on Monday also revealed that the survey director had detected encroachment of 14.4 cents of Poramboke land on the site in 2014 and the chief town planner detected violation of 21 aspects related to the Kerala Municipal Building Rules and the district town planning scheme.
After a long legal battle, the Lokayukta had in March ordered to take over 12.279 cents illegally possessed by the private builder at Pattoor, while further hearing would be held on the rights over about four more cents allegedly occupied by the builder.
The CAG report said that the Artech Realtors was issued the permit by the city corporation for construction of a shopping mall-cum-residential complex with a plinth area of 28,593.59 square metres on 225 cents of land. While the construction was progressing, the builder submitted an application for a revised permit with plinth area increased to 37,915.85 square metres, but the plot areas were reduced to 208 cents. The corporation issued the permit.
But the survey by survey department found that the actual land in possession of the builder was only 206.875 centres, and subsequently, the corporation issued a stop memo. Though the builder approached the High Court, the court refrained from allowing a stay but permitted to complete internal works on the condition that no further construction of structures shall be carried out on the premises.
But a physical verification by the audit team revealed that the building of the entire structure was progressing unimpeded and at advanced stages of completion. No action was taken by the corporation to stop the construction continued in violation of the court order, said the report.
Destitute left out of social security net
Marginal groups and vulnerable sections of the society in dire need of social security assistance are excluded from various pension schemes. This was revealed in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on Performance of Social Security Pension Schemes tabled in the Assembly on Monday. The CAG approximates that 15 per cent of eligible population in the state are left out. It also states that at least 12 per cent of the beneficiaries are “wrongfully included” in pension schemes.
In the local bodies test-checked, it was found that 46 per cent of Ashraya beneficiaries were not getting the benefits of social security pensions. (Ashraya is a destitute identification, rehabilitation and monitoring project carried out by Kudumbashree.) “Old age pension scheme had the highest rate of exclusion followed by the widow pension scheme,” the report said.
The report essentially points fingers at the guidelines formulated by the state government. While the state relaxed the norms fixed by the Centre and claimed to be more generous, it excluded specific sections of the poor belonging to the lowest strata. Intriguingly, the report observed, the population admitted to poor homes and old age homes have also been left out of the social security pension schemes. While the Centre limited the assistance to BPL families, the state had extended it to APL families, too.
In the end, the efficiency of social security coverage depends on proper income certification. The State Government has authorised village officers to issue income certificates and certificates confirming the status of applicants of widow pension, where the beneficiaries have no basis to declare their income.
"Considering that the prescribed income ceiling is the dominant criterion of eligibility, determining the annual family income is a challenge," the report said.
For instance, ration cards issued 6 years back is normally used as the basis. "In many cases, the details in the card were understated and incorrectly reflected the economic status of the applicants," the report said. Income certificates and ration cards, too, showed mismatch in a number of cases.
‘Pensions no more income support’
With monthly pensions disbursed in small installments over a year, the redistributive concept of income support for the poor has been defeated in the state. This was revealed in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on Performance of Social Security Pension Schemes tabled in the Assembly on Monday.
"The State Government did not release the funds to disbursing officers regularly so as to enable them to make the payments monthly," the report said. "The state released funds in three or four installments in a year to generally coincide with festive occasions such as Onam, New Year and the like," the report said.
Further, it was found that the quantum of funds released by the State Government was not in accordance with the requirement of local bodies. To make matters worse, even while releasing funds in lump sum, the state government generally specified the periods for which pensions should be disbursed. This is a strange directive considering that pension arrears have already accumulated.
A disbursement monitoring mechanism was also absent. There is no system in the local self government institutions to ensure that the beneficiaries are still in existence and continuing to fulfill the eligibility criteria like annual verification or life certificate. "As such, under the existing mechanism the LSGIs were not in a position to ensure that irregular payments were not made in respect of deceased pensioners," the audit report observed.
The report, however, noted that the initiative to link beneficiary accounts with Aadhar numbers, though not complete, was bringing in "discernible benefits" to the state. The report recommended that a system of providing mobile alerts to beneficiaries could be introduced to inform the beneficiaries of the payments credited to their accounts.
Local bodies’ own revenue declines drastically
Going by the revenues of local bodies, decentralisation looks like a failing experiment in the state. “The ‘own revenue’ of local bodies in the state has shown a sharp decline in the last five years,” said the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on Local Self Government Institutions, which was tabled in the Assembly on Monday.
The report shows that the percentage of 'own revenue' to total revenue of local bodies between 2010-11 and 2014-15 were 12.80, 12.32, 13.16, 11.87 and 8.14. Interestingly, the sharpest decline was during the 2014-15 fiscal. “Though there was increase in tax revenue, there was a drastic reduction in collection of non-tax revenue,” the report said.
‘Own funds’ consists of tax (property tax, profession tax, entertainment tax, advertisement tax) and non-tax revenue (licence fee, registration fee). It also includes income derived from the assets of local bodies, beneficiary contributions, earnest money deposits of contractors, and retention money. According to the Information Kerala Mission, 'own revenue' of 1,209 local self government institutions amounted to Rs 1,105.79 crore.
The CAG analysis also found that local bodies have ignored the productive sector. LSGIs are required to formulate projects under three Sectors, namely productive, service and infrastructure. Productive sector, including Agriculture, Fisheries, Industries, was the most neglected sector with a meagre expenditure of Rs 493.10 crore out of total expenditure of Rs 6134.87 crore (8.04 per cent).
During 2014-15, though the LSGIs in Kerala had formulated projects under productive sector to the tune of Rs 1,183.68 crore, the amount actually utilised was Rs 493.10 crore only, just 41.66 per cent of the allocated amount. Under utilisation seems to be the leitmotif of the decentralisation experiment. During 2014-15, though plans were formulated projects under Women Component Plan for Rs 1,072.69 crore, the amount that was eventually utilised was Rs 491.78 crore, only 45.85 per cent.
