Stories of criminal negligence of the agricultural schemes by the indifferent Central govt and inefficient states have come to light through the CAG report on Tuesday. Co-operative suffers as agriculture suffers as the two are connected irrevocably and the lack of development in the movement can be partly understood by CAG report.
Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), the agriculture ministry’s flagship programme, has become a classic case of underperformance with funds in 38 per cent of the 393 projects evaluated by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) amounting to Rs 2,287 crore not giving desired results, reports Business Standard.
This revelation has come handy for the NDA govt for reducing Central allocation to RKVY in 2015-16. The CAG report questions state governments’ role in proper execution of the programme.
The plan started with the vision of achieving four per cent annual farm growth in states was found to have many loopholes. In total, 4,000 projects were taken up for implementation during 2007-08 to 2012-13, of which the CAG did a comprehensive audit of 393, reports BS.
Glaring instances of diversion of funds and poor planning for projects at the districts level were found by the CAG. The sub-schemes under RKVY such as development of 60,000 pulses villages, National Food Security Mission etc were also fraught with irregularities.
The auditor, in one of the cases found Rs 759.03 crore was parked in the personal ledger accounts or personal deposit accounts in as many 11 states without any utilization. In Uttar Pradesh, the CAG found 100,000 seeds costing Rs 61 crore were supplied to farmers after the sowing was over.
Among the other instances of mismanagement of public funds in RKVY, the CAG found an instance where cage fishing was being promoted in hilly areas, where the topography was not suited for the same, leading to massive losses.