Helicopters hired for anti-left Wing Extremism (lWE-Maoist) operations in the State were misutilised by Ministers and Government officers, revealed a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) tabled in the State Assembly on Saturday.
“During February 2013 to September 2015, out of 341 sorties conducted by the PHHl Dauphin helicopter, only 53 sorties were used for security purpose and the rest 288 sorties, 84 per cent of the total, were engaged for surveillance and monitoring by various officers and Ministers, which were not admissible under the Security Related Expenditure scheme guidelines,” pointed out the CAG.
As per the SRE guidelines and instructions, the Union Government has permitted need-based hiring of private helicopters at competitive rates with prior approval, the report said.
The Union Government didn’t reimburse Rs 18.03 crore towards hiring charges of helicopter due to non-obataining prior approval.
It also revealed that serious difficulties were faced in offensives against Maoists and large-scale anti-Maoist operations were kept on hold due to absence of a suitable helicopter.
The State Government had signed an agreement with Pawan Hans Helicopters limited (PHHl) for hiring one 28-seat MI-172 helicopter, without prior approval of Centre in 2011. The helicopter was provided by the PHHl up to January 2013 and thereafter, it went out of order.
Such helicopters were to be used for dropping ration and ammunitions security personnel in inaccessible pockets, movement and evacuation of injured security personnel in anti-Maoist Operations.
Moreover, frequency of operation had also decreased during the period, the CAG found out.
The revealed that when the MI-172 helicopter was used during 2012-13 and from October 2015 to June 2016, it had conducted 343 sorties mainly for evacuation, rotation of forces, dropping of ration and shifting of injured personnel.
Moreover, extra expenditure to the tune of Rs 11.89 lakh per flying day was made, as the helicopter had used Bhubaneswar as its base instead of Koraput, which is closer to lWE-affected areas, pointed out the CAG.