Citing several shortcomings in the approvals granted to Lavasa hill station project, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recommended that the state government review its policy of granting special planning authority (SPA) projects to private agencies. The CAG also made scathing observations against the state government.
It its audit report on state’s revenue receipts for year ended on March 31, 2011, the CAG pointed out that “hill-station type areas” in Pune district were identified without any study or survey. The CAG further observed that Lavasa Corporation Ltd. (LCL) was selected without any transparency.
“The project was driven by private interests rather than public interest,” it said.
The state government had framed Special Development Control Regulations in 1996 to permit the private sectors to undertake development of townships in hill station-like areas.
***
Maha faces ire over rising water pollution
AGE CORRESPONDENT
Mumbai, April 17
A Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled in the state legislature on Tuesday has made adverse observations against the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board for its failure to check water pollution. The report has concluded that though the number of polluted river stretches in the state have increased from 23 to 28 in the last eight years, the MPCB has not taken any action to prevent further deterioration. According to the report, the Central Pollution Control Board and the MPCB had taken up monitoring of the quality of water in rivers and lakes in 2000. On the basis of the analysis of data collected between 2000 and 2006, 23 stretches were identified by the CPCB; the water quality at these stretches didn’t fulfil the criterion of biological oxygen demand.