Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor
General of India has pulled up Odisha Government for failing
to make long-term planning for modernisation of police and for
lopsided allocation between districts affected by Left Wing
Extremism (LWE) and the other districts.
"The annual plans were largely top driven and not
outcome-based. District wise priorities were not considered,
as no feedback was obtained from concerned Superintendents of
Police while preparing the plans," the CAG said in its report
for the year ended march 31, 2011.
Centralised procurement of weapons, equipment and
vehicles had not factored while compiling the field
requirements in the Annual Action Plans leading to
lopsidedness in allocations between the districts affected by
Left Wing Extremism and other areas, it said.
Even though the AAPs indicated clear bifurcation of
equipment and funds between LWE and non-LWE districts, neither
separate district-wise indents nor figures of district-wise
supplies were available in the office of the DGP, it said.
While 55 per cent of total allocation was utilised on
construction of buildings, only 11.5 per cent funds were spent
on important works like communication, computerisation,
forensic science and intelligence gathering which was
sub-optimal, though these were crucial to improving the
operational efficiency of police in dealing with rising LWE
activities, the report which was tabled in the Assembly on Thursday
said.
Weapons worth Rs 14.80 crore, including sophisticated
weapons worth Rs 13.83 crore were retained at the central arms
store at Cuttack without issuing these to field units, despite
61 per cent shortages of such weapons in eight test checked
districts, it said.
Shortage of trained manpower to handle sophisticated
weapons in the test checked districts was 78 per cent. Despite
utilisation of Rs 7.36 crore on computerisation and
communication, police networking and crime data sharing and
transmission remained unachieved, the CAG report said.
Communication system could not be made operational and
remained an area of concern. Despite shortage of 1288 vehicles
including 423 heavy vehicles, 10 light vehicles were purchased
in excess of prescribed norm and 626 vehicles procured under
the scheme were issued to training and other establishments
for non-operational work.
LWE attacks were on the rise from 2008 onwards. As the
striking capability of state police force did not increase
effectively to counter these attacks, casualties resulting
from LWE had also gone up, the CAG report said.
Factors affecting efficiency and striking capabilities
of state police were identified as large scale vacancies,
insufficient training and inadequate mobility support, the
report said.
Though high lead time in procurement and below average
responsiveness in construction and up-gradation activities
were adversely reported in the impact analysis survey report
(January - March 2010) of Bureau of Police Research and
Development (BPRD), yet the issues remained largely
un-addressed (November 2011).
The State Level Empowering Committee (SLEC) headed by
the Chief Secretary, which was supposed to monitor the
implementation of the scheme and give requisite directions to
address critical bottlenecks in the implementation of the
scheme, had not exercised requisite oversight, it said.
Though Rs 211.69 crore were released to Odisha State
Police Housing and Welfare Corporation Limited (OSPHWC) for
construction of 620 residential and non-residential buildings
during 2004-11, yet 76 buildings were not even started due to
non-finalisation of site.
Three buildings constructed at a cost of Rs 1.18 crore
in two test checked districts were left unused four to
14 months after being handed over. No agreement was executed
by the Home Department with OSPHWC in case of various
infrastructural development works entrusted to it without
tender.
Consequently, important parameters like timely
completion, quality control and timely handing over of
buildings could not be ensured.
By commencing construction work on forest land without
requisite forest clearance, Rs 46.60 lakh incurred on the
project construction of Indian Reserve Battalion (IRBN)
building, at Koraput was rendered unfruitful.
Interest of Rs 11.38 crore earned on unspent scheme
funds was retained by the OSPHWC; the Corporation was in the
process of adjusting it against extra expenditure incurred on
MPF works beyond the administratively approved cost. SLEC did
not take any step for refund of this amount by the
Corporation, the report said.
Inflated utilisation certificates for Rs?90.06 crore
were submitted to Union Government without actual utilisation.
The money was actually lying in the bank account of OSPHWC and
five other executing agencies, it said.
PTI
