After picking holes in the implementation of the UPA’s flagship rural job scheme, MGNREGA, the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of India is now all set to scan the functioning of the Rs 15,184 crore Indira Awas Yojna (IAY) that aims to provide houses to poor families in rural areas.
According to a senior official in the Union Rural Development Ministry, the performance of the Central rural housing scheme for the period from 2008-09 to 2012-13 being implemented in 28 States and five Union Territories will be under the CAG’s radar.
“The CAG will be conducting field visits and field audits as well as scrutiny of records/documents pertaining to implementation of lAY in 28 States and five UTs. Since the Performance Audit envisages physical verification by way of joint inspection to be conducted by the teams consisting of audit officials as well as officials from the State Governments, we have asked them to ensure all cooperation to the agency,” he said.
Under the Centrally sponsored scheme, the funding is shared between the Centre and the State Government in the ratio of 75:25. Under the scheme, a rural poor family can avail assistance of Rs 75,000 to construct a dwelling unit.
This is for the first time that the housing scheme is being brought under the lens of the top auditor with Rural Development Jairam Ramesh showing his keenness to bring transparency and cleanliness in almost all the scheme under his Ministry.
The CAG audit report on MGNREGA, which was tabled in Parliament last month has brought to fore several irregularities in the implementation of the scheme where works amounting to around Rs 4,070 crore were incomplete even after one to five years of launching.
The CAG scrutiny is also likely to reveal lapses in the performance and implementation of the IAY across the country. So far, the CAG had been auditing the implementation of the Central housing scheme statewise. For instance, in its latest report on implementation of the scheme in Odisha, the auditor has detected fraud and several irregularities at the cost of the beneficiaries.