Gandhinagar: The Gujarat government released the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on the last day of the monsoon session of the Legislative Assembly which gives an accurate picture of the current situation of Gujarat.
10 per cent of habitats in the state do not have a drinking water source
Gujarat government's claim that there was no chemical contamination of drinking water anywhere in the state was "not correct". In its report tabled in the state Assembly, the CAG cited laboratory reports and mentioned that over 20,000 out of 1.30 lakh samples, that is 15 per cent, "failed the chemical examination conducted by government laboratories in 2015-16".
The report further stated that a similar trend of contamination was found in tests conducted in subsequent years. The CAG's performance audit report on 'Rural drinking water supply programme in Gujarat' for the financial year 2017-18 was tabled on Friday, the last day of the state Assembly's Monsoon session.
It exposed the fact that 10 per cent of the human habitats in Gujarat do not have drinking water sources. CAG report has also raised questions on various claims of the government.
The report has commented on the working of Narmada, water resources and water supply departments of the state government. Moreover, as many as 35,996 human settlements have not been provided with drinking water. It has mentioned the paucity of quality gadgets in the laboratories.
It has refuted the claim of the government that it has supplied drinking water to all the 35,996 human settlements. No internal network of water supply existed and the water pipelines too were defective because of which drinking water could not reach these settlements.
For an example of the 2,352 villages of 8 district covered under the rural water supply project, only 1,857 villages were provided with water while there has been no record of non-functioning water supply schemes. The government was not aware of the non-functioning schemes.
Only routine sub-standard test of drinking water was done as the laboratories did not have standard equipment and facilities. There was less number of laboratories at taluka level while optimum use of the mobile laboratories was not being done. The multipurpose health workers were not using fast test kit for checking the quality of drinking water.
It has also made an observation on the non-agriculture land in the state. The Rajkot district collector’s office has recovered Rs 1.16 crore less towards premium for the conversion of agriculture land into non-agriculture. There were only 48 cases registered in the years from 2014-15 to 2016-17. In Gondal, only Rs 32 lakh was charged against Rs 1.48 crore. Officials claimed they did not have the census report.
It has shown a revenue surplus of Rs 3,212 crore during the year 2018-19 which was less by Rs 2,020 crore and lesser than the target set by the 14th finance commission. There has been an increase of Rs 8,553.33 crore in tax revenue and a decrease of Rs 1,656.98 in non-tax revenue. The central government owes Gujarat Rs 7,322.47 crore as GST compensation. As much as 69 per cent of the revenue income has come from its own resources.
Negligence in Ayurvedic pharmacy of Vadodara
The CAG has observed negligence on the part of the government ayurvedic pharmacy of Vadodara. It has brought to light the fact that medicines worth Rs 4.36 crore have not been put to a quality control test. This is because the technical staff did not have the necessary chemicals to carry out the test.
The FDCA license has been renewed in the name of retired employees. The license which had expired in 2016 was renewed up to 2021. Production of medicines has been shown for quality test. CAG has reported an absence of technical staff. During the period, medicines worth Rs 4.36 crore were supplied to various hospitals without carrying out the quality test. The quality test could not be carried out as the technical staff did not have the necessary glassware and chemicals.
CAG report has also examined the facilities at ayurvedic college. It is mandatory for the college to have well-equipped pharmacy and quality testing laboratory. Yet, except for Junagadh, no other college had a laboratory. The building at Kolavada remained unutilized for the last three years. The government informed that the facility would be provided in the college by June 2020.
Lapses in Ahmedabad hospital
The CAG has pointed to the flaws in the design of the 1,200-bed of Ahmedabad civil hospital. According to the CAG report, there were slots made for the HVAC system due to which there were cracks in the beam. An amount of Rs 30.62 crore had to be spent to carry out the repair which could have been avoided if the design were not faulty.
It was also due to the fault in a design that an additional Rs 1.17 was spent on the new building of GMERS hospital at Vadnagar. The consultant of the project should be questioned about the faulty design, CAG commented.
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