Srinagar, June 22: Indicating large-scale bunglings and irregularities, the Comptroller and Auditor General has said that Jammu and Kashmir has been deprived of Central assistance of Rs 12.51 crore during 1997-2002 due to belated submission of utilisation certificates, underutilisation of funds and submission of deficient and wrong proposals in respect of Centre-sponsored schemes. Cases of diversion of funds, unfruitful expenditure and excess payments of assistance aggregating Rs 1.19 crore were also noticed, the CAG report tabled in the state assembly on the concluding day of budget session yesterday, said.

Stating that an expenditure of Rs 41.53 crore was incurred on Centrally sponsored schemes of Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) and credit-cum-subsidy to provide housing to rural families living below poverty line, it said the rural development department had not conducted survey for identification of shelterless BPL rural families.

895 households, which did not figure in the BPL lists or were living in urban areas were covered under IAY and assistance of Rs 1.82 crore was released to them during 1997-2002, the report said.

Achievement of constructing and upgrading 28522 and 2118 houses respectively, reported to the Central government seemed improbable as only 20658 houses could be constructed against the expenditure of Rs 41.32 crore at the minimum rate of Rs 20000 per house, the report added.

Stating that investment in statutory corporations and government companies was unremunerative and fetched insignificant returns, CAG said 14 working government companies in which Rs 263 crore was invested as on March, 2002 were making losses and their accumulated loss aggregated Rs 686 crore as per their latest finalized accounts.

Bureau Report