Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly claimed since the BJP-led NDA government came to power at the Centre in 2014 that the previous UPA government had failed to undertake development across the country. However, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has now exposed what Congress described as the truth about the Modi government, Congress spokesperson Rajani Mohanty said Saturday.
Addressing a news conference at Congress Bhawan, Mohanty said the Centre had launched the UDAN scheme with much fanfare, promising to improve air connectivity to regional centers and bring major changes in the tourism sector. The government had also claimed the scheme would generate employment and promote development in the regions connected under it. The Centre had approved flight operations on 774 routes under the UDAN scheme.
However, after the mandatory three-year concession period, the scheme is now operational on only 54 routes, or about 7% of the approved routes, he said. Mohanty said 403 routes have not become operational since the launch of the scheme.
He alleged that Rs 600 crore allocated under the scheme remains unutilized. He also criticized the Smart Cities Mission, which was launched June 25, 2015. Eleven years after its announcement, the condition of the 100 cities selected under the mission remains poor, he said. Of the budgeted Rs 1.64 lakh crore for the mission, Rs 1,51,361 crore had been spent, Mohanty said. Despite the expenditure, several assets created under the mission were of poor quality and nonfunctional, he alleged.
The CAG also found that 44 projects were implemented under the Smart Cities Mission without approval, Mohanty said. Referring to the CAG report on the National Rural Drinking Water Supply programme, Mohanty said the auditor had expressed serious concern over its implementation.