The CAG’s latest report on Bihar for the year ended March 31, 2010 has given the state’s Opposition parties fresh weapons to be used against the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)-BJP alliance government, which is already feeling the heat over an alleged “scam” in industrial land allotments.
A gamut of financial irregularities in the implementation of government-funded schemes adding up to about `1,784 crore and lack of satisfactory progress in several public welfare schemes were detailed in the CAG’s report, which was tabled in the Bihar Assembly on Wednesday. The Opposition parties are all set to use the CAG report’s findings to discredit the government’s claims of efficient governance and its ongoing high-pitched campaign before the Centre for a special category status to Bihar.
The spectre of last year’s “treasury scam” looks set to haunt the state government as the CAG report said that a huge chunk of detailed contingency (DC) bills for expenditures made by the government were yet to be submitted to the highest constitutional auditing body. Although the state government started presenting thousands of DC bills last year, the CAG pointed out that still bills worth over `15,000 were awaiting submission.
Following the CAG’s revelations last year that DC bills worth `11,412 crore had not been submitted for several years, the Opposition parties had named it “treasury scam” and used it in their campaigns in the Assembly polls in the winter of 2010. The controversial matter of the DC bills is currently being heard by the Patna High Court.