The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) has pulled up the Orissa government for fixing the market rates of land in selected districts of the state in a manner that benefits the buyers at the cost of land owners.
The CAG in its civil report for the year ended March 31 2010 has stated that under-assessment of compensation by Rs 63.98 crore was noticed in 34 cases of acquisition of 3,120.57 acres of land for 11 entrepreneurs/industries due to erroneous fixation of market value of land.
"Performance audit of land acquisition and management in selected districts revealed that in case of both acquisition of private land and leasing of government land, fixation of market rates tend to benefit the buyers at the cost of land owners. In one district due to such erroneous fixation of market value of land and additional payment as ex gratia to the land owners, the state government was deprived of charging establishment charges of Rs 8.19 crore from the buyers”, the CAG says in its report.
The CAG in its audit observed that the department of revenue & disaster management responsible for land acquisition in the state did not frame any long-term or short-term plan for land use and details of land use were not maintained.
The department has also drawn flak from the CAG over the issue of encroachment of government land. This has become a routine feature as 19,792 acres of government land was under unauthorized occupation by March 31, 2010 as per official records.
The CAG noted that in 41 cases though 404.62 acres of land was under unauthorized occupation of 29 parties for 5-30 years, yet lease cases were not finalized, leading to non-realization of Rs 109.97 crore towards expected lease value of land.
Test check by the CAG revealed that though 5,061.52 acres of government land leased during 1985-2004 was not utilized by seven entrepreneurs, no action was taken to return the land to the government.
Apart from mismanagement in land acquisition, the CAG has taken a dig at the state government for total absence of institutional arrangements at the gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and district planning committee levels as envisaged in the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) programme.
The CAG observed that programmes for capacity building were inadequate and evaluation of the programme outcome was not done.
In case of Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the CAG observed that out of 10,420 unconnected habitations, only 5,598 habitations were connected with all-weather road connectivity by July 2010. Out of 799 roads targeted for completion by Marc 2010 under PMGSY in the sample districts under different phases, only 249 roads were completed and 550 roads remained incomplete at different stages.
