Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, March 31: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has criticised the water resources (WR) and housing and urban development (H&UD) departments for gross delay in implementation of the drinking water supply project to Puri town.
Up to September 2014, Rs 158.16 crore was spent on the project that was to be completed by December 2011, Orissa accountant general Amar Patnaik said about the report for the general and social sector for the year ended March 2014. However, the project had not been completed till December 2014, it said.
Vital components of the project, including development of water source, construction of intake well, water treatment plant and raw water rising main, had not been started because of deficiencies in the execution of the project, he said.
“The project was split into 39 packages, with the approval (May 2011) of H&UD and WR departments to enable speedy execution. Yet, work on 21 packages had not commenced (October 2014) as clear site was not available for development of water source by the WR department. As a result, the state could not avail of central assistance of Rs 61.73 crore for the project,” the auditor said in the report, which laid before the Assembly Tuesday.
The two departments stated (August 2014) that the work was awarded and delay in alienation of government land was due to unauthorised occupation by local people. Both the departments assured that steps would be taken for completion of the project by March 2015. The Union government had approved (July 2008) the project ‘Augmentation of drinking water supply system at Puri’ with a cost of Rs 166.90 crore under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.