The Gogoi admin has been diverting and misusing Central funds meant for border construction, and thus unable to implement the Assam Accord.
"Comptroller and Auditor General of India ....revealed that funds to the tune of Rs 7.53 crore provided between 1999 and 2004 for the project by the Centre had been diverted, misutilised and locked up to benefit the state PWD, irrigation, Assam State Electricity Board and bank, which has adversely affected the implementation of the project. " Huh! And we still have die-hards who would like to put the blame squarely on Delhi as to why the border hasn't been completed. I would fault the Center for entrusting an incompetent State machinery to undertake such a major project. The Center ought to send its own border construction team and get the job done. ___________________________________________________ Issue Date: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 Assam red-faced over CAG report A STAFF REPORTER Guwahati, Aug. 8: The Assam government has diverted central funds meant for the construction of a strategic Indo-Bangladesh border road and fence project, thereby leaving the scheme incomplete and exposing the border to infiltrators. This startling revelation, made in the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, 2004, tabled on the first day of the monsoon session of the Assembly here today, has come as an embarrassment for the Tarun Gogoi government, which has been claiming its sincerity in implementing the 1985 Assam Accord. The CAG said a review of the 100 per cent centrally-assisted project being executed by the Assam PWD since 1986-87 revealed that funds to the tune of Rs 7.53 crore provided between 1999 and 2004 for the project by the Centre had been diverted, misutilised and locked up to benefit the state PWD, irrigation, Assam State Electricity Board and bank, which has adversely affected the implementation of the project. Moreover, the department incurred "unfruitful/infructuous/wasteful/unproductive and unauthorised expenditure to the tune of Rs 9.13 crore". The revelation has come at a time when the infiltration issue has been in the headlines after the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act was struck down by the Supreme Court and the All Assam Students Union renewing its demand to get the 1985 Assam Accord implemented in toto. The 536.3-km-long border project was undertaken under Clauses 9.1 and 9.2 of the said pact to prevent infiltration through physical barr- iers like construction of all-weather roads and providing barbed wire fencing along the entire stretch of the border to facilitate effective patrolling by security personnel on land as well as riverine routes. The CAG report states that the state PWD has failed to plan properly, manage or execute the project smoothly. As a result, not only was the project incomplete, the 41.505 km of completed roads and 6.393 km of the fence could not be handed over either to the central PWD or to the BSF. It also said 107 km of riverine border, constituting as much as 40 per cent of the total project length, remains unsealed. "The overall shortfall in the construction of road was four per cent and 49 per cent under phases I and II respectively and that of the fence was four per cent and 85 per cent respectively," the report said. _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list Assam@pikespeak.uccs.edu http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam Mailing list FAQ: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html To unsubscribe or change options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
