VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, April 29: The audit report of the office of the Principal Accountant General of Jharkhand about the utilization of the District Mineral Fund Trust DMFT has revealed that DCs of some of the districts have grossly misused the fund for construction and renovation of their offices and buildings.
The AG has said that misutilization of funds indicates a presumptive fraud in the management of the accounts and utilization of the district mineral funds.
In the annual assessment report of DMFT for the year 2020-21 sent to the Mines and Geology department the AG has said that PMKKKY (Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana) guidelines have been grossly violated by DCs of respective DCs. The audit report covers six districts namely Chatra, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Bokaro and Lohardaga.
Chatra and Lohardaga renovated DC office, building, Ranchi built Dak bungalow
The most glaring among them are in Chatra where generator set furniture and sound system for the DC office was purchased besides construction of the DC office building, meeting hall, toilet and retiring room, renovation of the first floor of the DC office. The Lohardaga district administration too renovated its conference hall out of this fund. Bokaro constructed 24 open gyms. Ranchi district administration, on the other hand, constructed a Dak bungalow at McCluskieganj.
A total of 12 works were done during 2016-20 incurring an expenditure of Rs 9.02 Crore beyond the guidelines of the PMKKKY.
About Dak bungalow at McCluskieganj, it states that an amount of 85.86 lakh was sanctioned (May 2017) for the construction of the Dak-bungalow. Accordingly, this work was awarded (March 2018) to Zila Parishad. This work was completed in September 2020 and expenditure was booked as ‘Skill development and Livelihood’. “However, such construction work does not fall under the category of ‘Skill development and Livelihood’ under the provision of PMKKKY guidelines. Thus, booking such expenses under DMFT was a case of presumptive fraud as the entire objective of creating this Fund gets defeated by such activities by the Chairman of the Trust itself. The Department, therefore, should take urgent steps to fix responsibility and initiate action for recovery,” it said.
In Chatra, three schemes related to the ‘Repair and Maintenance of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DWS) Department and the construction of toilets in police stations was sanctioned for Rs 4.79 crore during 2017-19, out of which Rs 4.52 crore was spent. “Repair and Maintenance of tube wells and water supply system was not an ongoing scheme/project funded by the State Government rather it was a routine and recurring work of the DWS Department which was to be carried out from the budget of DWS Department.
“As such, sanction of these schemes under DMFT was not admissible and was beyond the scope of PMKKKY guidelines. The Department should stop these malpractices and fix accountability against the erring officials,” the report states.
CM and Chief Secretary diverted bulk of DMFT funds
The report states that in the violation of PMKKKY guidelines, Rs 4,473.18 crore (81 per cent of total collection) was sanctioned in Jharkhand on two schemes of piped drinking water and ODF reportedly on the instructions of Chief Minister and Chief Secretary to meet the scheme targets neglecting other services under high priority area and other priority areas.
What are PMKKKY guidelines?
The utilization of the DMFT fund is governed by PMKKKY. Under the PMKKKY it is mandatory for concerned District Mineral Foundations to use the fund to implement various developmental and welfare projects in the mining-affected areas. And these projects are supposed to complement the existing ongoing schemes of the respective state and Central governments to minimize and mitigate the adverse impacts, during and after mining. It covers a wide range of topics like environment, health and socio-economics of people in mining districts and to ensure long-term sustainable livelihoods for the affected people in mining areas.
High priority and other priority areas under PMKKKY
These high priority areas are Drinking water supply, Environment preservation and pollution control measures, Health care, Education, Welfare of Women and Children, Welfare of aged and disabled people, Skill development and Sanitation. The other priority areas are Physical infrastructure, Irrigation and Energy and Watershed Development.
Examination of resource allocation required from a vigilance angle
The AG said that despite repeated requests, the Department of Mining and Geology did not provide any record for the methodology adopted for the selection and prioritization of schemes or for identification of directly, indirectly affected areas and people in compliance with the Act.
“Such non-production of records from Audit prevents examination of the basis of resource allocation in the absence of mining-affected areas and people. The matter, therefore, merits examination from a vigilance angle as it is not possible, without impartial investigation, to find out how resources have been allocated and spent on any particular area, cluster, or for any set of beneficiaries,” said the report.
