The state government’s cup of woes over tardy progress of projects with MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) commitments is going to spill over with these projects now coming under the scrutiny of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG).
CAG has decided to vet the progress of MoU signed projects and conduct performance audit on commitments made by the state government in respect of land, water and minerals allocated to the project proponents.
To facilitate such scrutiny, the findings of which will be included in CAG’s audit report for 2011-12, the Central auditor has sought detailed information on status of MOU signed projects till March 2012.
“As industries department is signing MoUs with different promoters for establishment of projects, assessing land requirement through Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol) and acquiring land through Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha (Idco), information on number of MoUs signed and commitments made in respect of land, water and minerals may be furnished to this office,” K C Behera, senior deputy accountant general (audit), Office of the Accountant General-Odisha said in a letter to Parag Gupta, industries secretary.
“The CAG has asked for some information pertaining to progress of the MoUs signed projects and we will comply soon,” said an industries department official.
In toto, the state government has signed MoUs with 93 companies including 50 in steel sector, 29 in power, three in aluminium and three for cement plants.
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By December 2012, the state government through its land acquisition agency Idco, has allotted 20,343.31 acres to steel companies against requirement of 33,147.96 acres.
Similarly, for aluminium projects, 7,688.95 acres have been allocated against the requirement of 10,838.5 acres as appraised by Ipicol. Power projects have been allotted 4,840.16 acres compared to total requirement of 11,859.2 acres.
Of the 50 players which had inked MoUs for steel projects, 30 units, mostly in small and medium scale, have gone into either partial or full scale production, achieving total steel capacity of 8.66 million tonne per annum (mtpa) out of the total envisaged capacity of 83.66 mtpa and Captive Power Plant (CPP) generation of 1,069 MW. Even without big ticket investments like Posco and ArcelorMittal taking off due to land acquisition hurdles, the steel sector has seen grounding of investment of Rs 56,090.34 crore till March last year. Among the power MoUs too, most of the projects have been non-starters with only Sterlite Energy having commissioned three units of its 2,400 MW (4x600) coal-based plant at Burkhamunda near Jharsuguda. Four more independent power producers- GMR Energy, KVK Nilachal, Monnet Power and Ind-Barath Energy Utkal Ltd were expected to commission their units by the end of 2012.