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Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has asked the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog to release funds for the Ardh (half) Kumbh Mela, slated to begin next year. However, Rawat did not specify the amount needed for the Mela.
In a statement here, Rawat said he held talks with the chief executive officer of the Aayog, Sindhushree Khullar, and called for releasing funds needed to strengthen infrastructure facilities for the Mela in Haridwar.
Rawat also said a central committee under the previous United Progressive Alliance government had promised Rs 8,000 crore for the reconstruction works in the wake of 2013 calamitous deluge in the state. But after the NITI Aayog came into being, funds of only Rs 3,000 crore could be released for the state, Rawat said. In this regard, Rawat called for releasing the remaining funds.
A Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)'s report had highlighted the widespread irregularities during the Kumbh Mela in 2010. The CAG report had put the then Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in tight spot by highlighting wasteful, avoidable and unauthorised expenditures of about Rs 223 crore in the Mela. The Mela was organised with a total action plan of Rs 590 crore, with the Centre contributing Rs 565 crore.
Rawat, the then Union minister, had called for a stern action against the erring people, who had allegedly siphoned off the funds. But when Rawat became the chief minister, he put on an inquiry commission report on the backburner on the Kumbh Mela and other scandals probed by the S C Tripathi Commission.
Anil P Joshi, a social activist, said, "Huge funds were wasted when the Kumbh Mela was held in 2010. But after that, the demand for more funds is growing now. We must know what happened to the earlier funds."
