Tamil Nadu: CAG points to loss of public money

Chennai: The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report that was placed in the Assembly on Wednesday has made references to several instances of wrong decisions by the authorities and loss to exchequer caused by various government departments due to different reasons.

One of them is the government failing to get back the Rs 210.10 crore spent on importing sand, which was kept in storage for four years due to the inordinate delay in formulating regulations for sales by the Water Resources department, besides making imprudent decisions.

The reports point to needless expenses to the tune of Rs 32.22 crore in the Free Gold for Marriage scheme, Rs 74.93 crore in the procurement of free data sim card for students and a loss of Rs 715.73 crore due to the delay in appealing against court orders by the revenue department in land acquisition cases.

Pointing to several lapses in the implementation of the free house patta scheme and disabled welfare scheme, the reports found the Fire and Rescue Department not working to full capacity but to 78 per cent of the requirement.

While there should be 451 fire stations in the State, there were only 352 of them and the 3 snorkel firefighting equipment purchased in 2016 for a cost of Rs 46.96 crore had very little use since then. But no vehicles and drivers led to 352 calls going unattended, it said.

A building constructed at a cost of Rs 23.10 crore could not be put to full use at the Chennai Central Polytechnic premises as the measurement of the land requirement was not taken properly and basic infrastructure could not be provided, a report said.

Lapses in the implementation of the State government scheme to provide free coaching to those appearing for competitive examinations by the School Education Department led to the government incurring unwanted expenses of Rs 2,12 crore and avoidable expenses of Rs  72.15 crore.