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| In 7 years PHE loses Rs 78 lakh, blocks Rs 39 lakh | | Providing potable drinking water to rural populace in Jammu | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 3: The failure of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department to provide portable drinking water to rural populace in Jammu division and to make the augmentation scheme functional over a period of seven years has resulted in unfruitful expenditure of Rs 78.28 lakh and blocking of Rs 39 lakh.
Documents in possession of Early Times reveal that in order to augment the supply of potable water to the local inhabitants of villages Alyia, Bissi Kalakot and Dehari, the Executive Engineer Public Health Engineering (PHE) Division, Reasi proposed (2006) an ‘Improvement/ augmentation of water supply scheme Alyia’ at an estimated cost of Rs 1.19 crore. The scheme was designed to provide potable water to estimated population of 5,386 in the next 15 years against the existing population of 1,586 inhabiting these villages.
The Detailed Project Report for the scheme was approved (2011-12) at cost of Rs 1.17 crore with funding from NABARD-National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and the State Government in the ratio of 90:10 with the stipulated completion period of one year.
The documents reveal that against the amount of Rs 1.17 crore released during the period 2011-12 to 2016-17, an expenditure of Rs 1.17 crore(2011-12: Rs 51.64 lakh; 2012-13: Rs 13.50 lakh; 2013-14: Rs 12.99 lakh; 2014-15: Rs 1.43 lakh; 2015-16: Rs 14.66 lakh; 2016-17: Rs 23.06 lakh) was incurred on procurement of material, construction of certain components(Construction of dug well, pump room, rising main, distribution system, chowkidar quarter, ground service reservoir, pumping machinery, sump tank etc.) of the scheme etc. However, the augmentation scheme could not be completed as the proposed source, a dug well drilled for scheme was not made functional as of August 2019 and material valuing Rs 39 lakh remained unutilised.
On being pointed out in audit (September 2018/ July 2019) the EE, PHE Division, Reasi stated (May 2019/ August 2019) that the bore well was capped after drilling and pump room was also constructed to save it. However, at the time of lowering the pump, it was noticed that the bore well was filled with stones which could not be cleared as it was required to dismantle the slab and walls of the room. It was also stated that the matter has been taken up with the higher authorities and the bore well required repairs, which were estimated to cost Rs three lakh.
However, the fact remains that despite incurring the expenditure of Rs 1.17 crore, the water supply to the identified villages as per the project could not be augmented (August 2019) thereby defeating the very purpose of providing potable water to the existing population of three villages. Therefore, the failure of the Department to repair the dug well and to make the augmentation scheme functional over a period of seven years resulted in unfruitful expenditure of Rs 78.28 lakh and blocking of Rs 39 lakh. |
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