Karnataka govt's 'Suvarna Gramodaya Yojana' a failure: CAG

Belagavi (Karna), Jun 29: Karnataka government's 'Suvarna Gramodaya Yojana' was a "failure" as the overall development of each village was not achieved, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has stated.

Suvarna Gramodaya Yojana was launched by the state government in February 2007 with an intention to develop village communities by adopting an intensive and integrated approach to rural development.

The objective of the scheme was development of 1,000 villages every year through the concentrated efforts of government, non-government organizations, partners from private sector and village communities.

The government today tabled the CAG report on local bodies for the year ended March 2014 in the Assembly, which is holding its monsoon session here. The report contains results of the performance audit and compliance audit of Panchayat Raj institutions and urban local bodies.

Stating that the performance audit of the scheme for the period 2009-14 showed that Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department allocated funds in pre-determined percentage for 10 different components, the report said there were no parameters and benchmarks of desirable levels to determine when a village would be regarded as a developed village.

It said planning was inadequate for achieving the goal of overall upgradation of physical environment of selected villages and improvement of the quality of life.

The village development plans were not comprehensive in terms of information contained in them, it said adding, that there was no convergence of other sector programmes for overall development of the village.

The report also mentions about irregularities in execution of training activities and payment made to Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited.

On implementation of total sanitation campaign or 'Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan', the report said the performance audit of the scheme covering the period 2009-14 showed that the scheme was "deprived of institutional support" critical for planning its implementation.

PTI