The CAG of India is the Auditor General of the United Nations in the current term. It is learnt that the comments and recommendations of the CAG regarding the performance of different UN agencies have been highly appreciated by the UN authorities and remedial measures have been taken in conformity with the recommendations of the CAG without any avoidable delay.
However, nearer home, the CAG faces inaction and disregard of steps towards good governance ensuring the rule of law. The CAG has reportedly submitted a list of unauthorised constructions in Bhubaneswar indicating that such constructions are liable to be demolished. It is also further reliably learnt that the list is an outcome of joint inspections conducted in most cases.
These constructions are wholly unauthorised and there is no provision in law to legitimise them in any manner. On account of the delay caused by the BDA and the State Urban Development Department, the CAG has repeatedly requested for a compliance report.
In view of the continued silence of the authorities, the CAG is reportedly in the process of directing a compliance audit and submit a suitable report to the legislature. Such a report is bound to reflect on the quality of governance in the State capital itself.
The State Government in the past has created hurdles for production of files and records before the authorities representing the CAG. After necessary intervention at the appropriate level, these records were produced in a piecemeal manner. For a Government projecting itself ensuring good governance and ensuring adherence to law, the CAG report regarding willful noncompliance, specially relating to demolition of wholly unauthorised constructions, is bound to affect the image of the Government.
The allotments under the discretionary quota as listed by the CAG have been found to be accurate by the Taradatt-led Taskforce.
As the Taskforce report is neither being acted upon nor being made public, activist groups are reportedly organising themselves to move the appropriate courts of law to ensure remedy against illegal constructions and discretionary allotments received through inaccurate declarations. The legislature is yet to be adequately informed of these facts and derelictions. It is, therefore, natural for the activists to cause the disclosure and ensure appropriate remedial measures through inevitable court directions.
