The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has detected several anomalies in the ambitious laptop and Tablet distribution programme of the Akhilesh Yadav government between 2012-14 – the project which was once the USP of the state government..
The CAG said that the government incurred wasteful expenditure on procurement of the Tablets while excess budgetary provision was made for the purchase of laptops. The auditor made several critical remarks on the scheme and even questioned the government for not providing tablets to Xth pass students even after budget was granted and bids were finalised for the purchase.
The report of the CAG on General and Social Sector for the year ended March 31, 2014 was tabled in the UP assembly on Thursday. The CAG said that the state government made excessive provision of funds during 2012-14 in which 2.020.85 crores lapsed and Rs 598.33 crores was lying unspent in personal ledger account. A total of Rs 5,441.61 crores were sanctioned for the scheme in which Rs 3,420.76 crores were used for purchase of laptops.
The report made a critical remark that the class X pass students were deprived of the intended benefits of the tablets despite sufficient budget provisions. Wasteful expenditure of Rs 60.05 lakhs was incurred on procurement process of 26.62 lakh tablets. The CAG report said that against 18.90 lakh estimated class XII passed students, only 14.81 lakh laptops were purchased and only 14.81 lakh laptops were purchased and only 14.35 lakh were distributed resulting in 4.55 lakh eligible students being denied the benefits of laptops.
During joint physical verification, 215 laptop worth Rs 41 lakh were found short in test-checked districts (Aligarh, Azamgarh, Bijnore and Moradabad) and 52 laptops worth Rs 9.91 lakh were stolen or found missing in Allahabad. The CAG report said that in Aligarh, Allahabad, and Banda where the functions to distribute laptops were held by the chief minister, excess expenditure of Rs 2.97 crore was incurred against the prescribed limit.
In six test-checked districts ( Aligarh, Allahabad, Banda, Bijnore, Gautam Buddha Nagar and Sant Ravidas Nagar) liability of Rs 6.25 crores under administrative expenses was also created. The CAG has also taken strong exception on non-verification of students post distribution of the laptops. “State level Web Monitoring System was not being used optimally, The mechanism put in place to assess and ensure the use of distributed laptops was weak and largely not followed by those responsible for it,’ it quoted .
It has suggested to the government to initiate immediate action to utilise 45,803 laptops lying undistributed in the stock and the government should put a robust system of monitoring to ensure that all the 14.35 lakh laptops distributed to the students are put to use. However, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav claimed that there was no irregularities in the laptop distribution in the state.