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KCR’s adopted villages get bountiful
On one hand, the Chief Minister of Telangana has been insisting upon transparency in administration and corruption-free rule in the State, but on the other some officials are reportedly throwing all regulations to winds and foiling progress.
Hyderabad: On one hand, the Chief Minister of Telangana has been insisting upon transparency in administration and corruption-free rule in the State, but on the other some officials are reportedly throwing all regulations to winds and foiling progress.
In a surprising revelation, it is found that the officials of agriculture department diverted almost one-thirds of the budgetary allocations to two villages, adopted by the Chief Minister. Even the project was unilaterally sanctioned to a Gujarat-based company without inviting tenders.
Apart from this, the Government Order (GO) released in this regard is not even uploaded on to the website, which is meant for displaying all the GOs. The Hans India RTI activist sought details of funds to the tune of Rs 49, 89, 08, 000 granted as per the budget release orders by the State finance department. He also asked the beneficiaries, their eligibility for availing the scheme. He applied to the secretary agriculture department and commissioner, horticulture.
In response to his query, the horticulture commissioner furnished information which revealed that under the Telangana State Micro-Irrigation Project (TSMIP), Rs 49.89 cr was sanctioned to Erravalli and Narsannapet villages of Medak district. In fact, the horticulture department was allotted Rs 140.94 crore to implement TSMIP for the fiscal year 2016-17. Surprisingly, the funds released to the two villages are 1/3 of the total budget.
All that remaining is just Rs 90 cr. The information about the distribution or allocation of the remaining amount was not available on the website. The scheme TSMIP is intended to increase crop productivity by improving water use efficiency through the micro-irrigation. Presently, the project is being implemented in nine districts.
The government issued GO No. 149 on 7 April, 2016. The GO was issued by C Parthasarathi, secretary, agriculture department. But surprisingly the GO was not uploaded on to the website goir.telangana.gov.in which is designed for displaying all GOs. The information provided by the officials include a copy of the GO and another copy of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Netafim Irrigation of India, the company which got the contract to implement the scheme.
The selection methodology of the implementation of the programme furnished by the horticulture department reveals that the Gujarat-based Netafim Company bagged the contract without any process like inviting tenders. It has to facilitate the micro-irrigation installations in both drip and sprinklers.
According to the information provided by horticulture department officials, there are 193 mandals which are drought-hit in six Telangana districts.The department concerned generously released almost Rs 49 crore for the two villages in Medak district which is only 41 per cent drought-affected. But surprisingly, no information is available about Mahbubnagar district whose 98.4 per cent of the mandals are drought-hit.
By Ganji Srinivasa Rao
