Shortcomings in implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission in some Hry municipalties

There have been shortcomings in the implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission in some municipalities in Haryana as households having insanitary latrines were not targeted to provide toilets, a CAG report said today.

There was shortfall in coverage of households for construction of toilets and even the toilets which were constructed were incomplete in a number of cases, it said.

As per the CAG report 2016-17 tabled in the Haryana Assembly here today, 12 municipalities including in Panchkula, Hodal, Narnaul and Sampla had identified only those households which did not have toilets, but households having insanitary latrines and single pit latrines were neither identified nor targeted for coverage under the mission.

Households having insanitary toilets were not identified in 12 test-checked municipalities and public toilets were not constructed in 23 municipalities, the report said, adding the survey was not conducted as per guidelines and eligible households remained deprived of the benefits of the mission.

In six municipalties, assistance for construction of individual household latrines was released to 3,429 beneficiaries.

The audit observed that out of 3,429 beneficiaries, incentives of Rs 180 cr were released to 2,571 beneficiaries without verification of their genuineness, which was in contravention of the guidelines.

Further, only partial incentives were released to 2,192 beneficiaries in urban areas and 1,364 beneficiaries in rural areas. Cases of double/triple payments of incentive were also observed.

"Release of incentives without verification entails risk of payment of incentives to ineligible households as during physical verification of 130 beneficiaries in these municipalities, it was found that 4 beneficiaries were provided incentives although they already had sanitary toilets.

"Besides, 11 beneficiaries could not be located at specific addresses," the report said.

Meanwhile, on the working of Maharishi Dayanand University at Rohtak, the performance audit of the university brought out lack of planning, deficiencies in financial management, non-enforcement of infrastructure and academic standards in affiliated colleges, manpower and infrastructure deficiencies in the classes which impaired the ability of the university to achieve its overall objectives, the CAG report said.