Corruption in infra projects taking nation on 'highway to hell': Cong

The Congress on Tuesday cited a Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of India report on the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' highway projects to accuse the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government of corruption and said it is "taking the nation on a highway to hell".

The opposition party also asked if Modi will take responsibility for the "incompetence and corruption in the Bharatmala projects under his direct watch".

Citing the CAG report, Kharge said Modi should look within before harping on corruption by his political opponents.

"BJP's corruption and loot is (are) taking the nation on a highway to hell," Kharge said on X, formerly Twitter.

In a scathing report against the Modi government, he said, the CAG has pointed out that the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' is being built with "innumerable deficiencies, non-compliance of outcome parameters, clear violation of tender bidding process and huge funding mismanagement".

Kharge said the CAG has exposed that the "cost of this project was originally estimated at Rs 528.8 crore but later zoomed to Rs 7,287.2 crore -- a whopping 1,278 per cent increase".

"Dwarka Expressway was appraised and approved without any detailed project report. The planned toll rates shall hinder the recovery of capital cost of the project and result in undue financial burden on commuters," he said.

One of the stark examples of the "fraud" in this scheme is the Dwarka Expressway, he said.

Further, citing the report, the Congress leader said the lane configurations of the Dwarka Expressway were determined without analysing the development of nearby competing infrastructure and the construction was done with suboptimal specifications.

"Pradhan Mantri ji, you need to look within, before you harp about corruption against your opponents, because you are overseeing it yourself. In 2024, INDIA will make your government accountable," Kharge said.

Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh also hit out at Modi.

"Tomorrow, the prime minister will unleash a torrent of lies from the ramparts of the Red Fort for one last time. Last week, the entire country saw his tsunami of lies in Parliament."

"But will he have the courage to question the corruption and incompetence of his own government and ministers," he asked.

Citing a series of CAG reports tabled in Parliament, Ramesh said even a "defanged" CAG has been able to "expose the sheer corruption and incompetence of the Modi government".

Highlighting the findings of the CAG reports, he said, the auditor has flagged an overall cost overrun of more than 100 per cent in the much-hyped 'Bharatmala Pariyojana'.

This project was approved and monitored by none other than the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) that is chaired by the prime minister, he said.

The sanctioned cost of the 26,316 km of highways that have been awarded was Rs 8,46,588 crore, as against the CCEA-approved length of 34,800 km at a cost of Rs 5,35,000 crore, he claimed.

This means that these projects were awarded at a cost of Rs 32.17 crore per km, more than double the cost of Rs 15.37 crore per km approved by the CCEA, he charged.

"Despite multiple cost overruns, only 13,499 km of national highways have been completed till 31 March 2023, less than 39 per cent of the CCEA-approved length.

"The CAG also raised concerns about the inflated project cost of the Dwarka Expressway, which went up 14 times from the sanctioned Rs 18 crore/km to Rs 250 crore/km," Ramesh said.

The Congress leader said the CAG has also highlighted irregularities in the Bharatmala bidding process successful bidders not fulfilling tender condition, bidders being selected on the basis of falsified documents, work awarded without approved detailed project reports or faulty DPRs and the diversion of funds to the tune of Rs 3,598.52 crore from escrow accounts.

"Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for this incompetence and corruption in the Bharatmala projects under his direct watch," Ramesh asked.

He said the CAG has uncovered violations of toll rules, with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) wrongly collecting Rs 132.05 crore from commuters in just five randomly audited toll plazas.

At the same time, the NHAI lost revenue of Rs 133.36 crore due to lack of provision for revenue sharing in concession agreements in two sections of NH projects, he said.

"If this audit were extrapolated to the whole country, the overall loss to the exchequer and the commuters would amount to lakhs of crores. Will the Prime Minister take action against the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways," the Congress MP asked.

Ramesh said the CAG has reported payouts to the dead in the "prime minister's favourite" Ayushman Bharat Scheme.

As many as 88,760 patients died during treatment and yet, 2,14,923 claims were shown as paid in respect of "fresh treatments" given to these dead "patients", he said citing another CAG report.

"Other than that, 7.5 lakh recipients were linked to a single mobile number and 4,761 registrations made against seven Aadhaar numbers. In total, there are more than 1.24 crore fake beneficiaries linked to only 1,86,855 mobile numbers. Will the Prime Minister order an investigation on who were the real beneficiaries of this massive Digital India scam in Ayushman Bharat," he asked.

The CAG, Ramesh said, has raised similar questions on irregularities in the Ayodhya Development Project and the diversion of old page pension funds under the National Social Assistance Programme for publicity of the Modi government's schemes instead.

"We demand answers from the Prime Minister, chuppi todiye, Pradhan Mantri ji (break your silence, prime minister)," he said.