Jajpur: Several departments in Jajpur are yet to submit 38.51 per cent utilisation certificates of the last 10 years of the flood assistance funds. Furthermore, four departments have not submitted their utilisation certificates of their fund utilisation at all by September 30, 2020.
The fact came to the fore when the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General was presented in the Assembly, recently.
The CAG report pointed out that 37 departments have not submitted utilisation certificates of Rs 45,340 crore. As a result, these departments may not be able to get further funds from the Centre. At the state executive meeting, joint secretary of the Water Resources department Subrat Kumar Panda has issued a directive to submit UCs as soon as possible.
On the other hand, people in coastal districts have alleged mis-utilisation of funds being provided for repair of damage and reconstruction work.
Many riparian pockets in Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Nayagarh, Puri, Khurdha and Jajpur have been facing flood fury at regular intervals. Flood problem has been a perennial issue for them over decades. This issue has not yet been redressed properly despite provision of funds.
The floods caused by Baitarani and Brahmani rivers in August had caused huge devastation in Jajpur. Extent of damage by floods was said to be the worst ever in the last two decades.
About 10 lakh people of 1,244 villages in 258 panchayats were affected by floods and 10 people had died.
In the devastating floods of 2011, around four lakh people in 499 villages in the district were affected. Huge sum of funds were provided to the district for repair and reconstruction works.
In the last 10 years, the state government has provided Rs 684823.52 lakh. UCs for Rs488292.04 lakh have been submitted to the state government while UCs for Rs196531.48 lakh are yet to be submitted.
Various quarters expressed suspicion over utilitisation of flood assistance funds in the district, as they have pointed out non-submission of UCs by some departments in ten years.
PNN