Graft kills projects for parched areas

Bhopal: Corrupt officials have scripted a tragic end to the Rs 3,860 crore anti-poverty project sanctioned by the Centre in 2010 for lasting a solution to the socio-economic problems in the six parched and backward districts in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh.

The blatant corruption unearthed during random inspection has left investigators shocked with names of dead people appearing in the workers’ rolls.

Vehicles listed in records as tractors and earth movers for transporting gravel and other construction material were found to be cars and bikes. Similarly, development money was released for non-existent water bodies.

“In Panna district, random physical verification of nine watershed projects revealed massive corruption. Five out of nine watershed structures were never constructed though the amount was spent,” said a report by the state government’s chief technical examiner (CTE) (vigilance) R.K. Mehra.

In these nine watershed projects, an amount of Rs 6 crore was spent, out of which Rs 2.70 crore was embezzled. Payments were found to be made to people who had died years back, the report said.

“Twenty-three vehicles which were shown as tractors and earth movers were found to be motor cycles, scooters, auto rickshaws and cars,” the report said.

Contractors ignored technical specifications rendering many structures useless.

The probe findings have sparked an outrage in the region, forcing the state government to freeze pension of engineers involved in corruption.The then UPA government at the Centre had announced a Rs 7,286 crore special package for development of the whole region of Bundelkhand, comprising six districts in MP and seven districts in Uttar Pradesh, in 2009.

In the package, the share of MP was Rs 3,860 crore. The funds were meant for Panna, Tikamgarh, Damoh, Chhatarpur, Datia and Sagar districts.

The project envisaged economic empowerment of the poor in the region by giving a boost to agriculture and allied sectors in the area, infamous for endemic poverty, chronic water shortage and unemployment.

A PIL was filed in the MP high court by social activist Pavan Ghuwara demanding a probe into the implementation of the package, leading to the institution of an inquiry by the CTE.

Funds to the tune of Rs 135.13 were earmarked for construction of 350 stop dams in the region for conservation of water to solve the chronic water crisis. The CTE investigation found lapses in award of works to contractors. “Some contractors had started works without being awarded contracts formally. In most cases, technical specifications and other guidelines fixed for construction of the stop dams were not followed,” the report said.

“Poor quality of constructions has rendered many of these stop dams almost useless,” it said.

The field officials in charge of supervision of construction had overlooked the lapses, indicating their nexus with the contractors, the probe said.

A member of the probe team told this newspaper, on condition of anonymity, “Dams constructed under the project were of extremely poor quality and could not withstand water pressure. Their utility was found to be hardly 10 percent.”

Irregularities were also detected in dairy and animal husbandry schemes proposed under the project. Incidentally, the Centre had held back the release of nearly 50 per cent of the Rs 3,860 crore granted for the package due to non-submission of fund utilisation certificates by the state government, an officer of the MP government said.

Official apathy

• Of the total 30 lakh hectare area in six districts of the Bundelkhand region in MP, 24 lakh hectares are used for agriculture
• A study by an NGO found that in the last 10 years, the parched belt has witnessed a decline in agriculture production by 55 per cent and productivity by 21 per cent
• The region has witnessed 1,187 cases of alleged farmer suicides in the last 13 years, although, the state government says the deaths might be due to other reasons
• Ground water level in the region has dipped by around 3-4 metres in the past decades
• Massive deforestation has led to erratic monsoons in the past several decades. Rain days have been reduced from 52 in a year to 27 in a year between 1999 and 2008
• Out of nearly 70,000 million cubic meter water received during monsoon in the region, only 15,000 million cubic metre is recorded to be recharging ground water due to lack of major dams
• A part of the region has shown signs of desertification turning 2 lakh acres of land in four districts of Chhatarpur, Panna, Tikamgarh and Damoh into wastelands
• Alleged farmer suicides have been reported in districts like Chhatarpur (322), Panna (277), Tikamgarh (163), Damoh (130) and Sagar (295)
• The region has a population of 3 crore, comprising 22.68 per cent SC population and 6.15 per cent ST population