NEW DELHI: Two years after the tsunami hit Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Pondicherry, an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of the tsunami relief and rehabilitation measures revealed that the Ministry of Environment and Forests had not enforced environmental laws resulting in extensive destruction of coastal areas.

The CAG report, tabled in Parliament on Friday, said while the affected States projected a requirement of financial assistance of Rs.11,796.40 crore, the Home Ministry sanctioned Rs. 3,644.05 crore based on the Central team's recommendation for an amount of Rs. 5,690.81 crore. As an amount of Rs. 1,607.01 crore was transferred to the long-term reconstruction programme, the affected States and Union Territories were left with only Rs. 1,759.05 crore for immediate relief and rehabilitation.

The report said the system of damage assessment "needs to be made more transparent so that the States do not overpitch their requirement.

The States also need to be realistic in projecting their requirement for immediate relief assistance as large amounts of released assistance remained unutilised as of March 2006."

The institutional mechanism for disaster management was "inadequate and resulted in lack of coordination in measures for preparedness and vulnerability reduction."

The experience gained from earlier natural disasters did not result in any improvement in the regulation and implementation of environmental laws such as enforcement of Coastal Zone Regulation. This would have prevented the destruction of coastal areas and mitigated the adverse impact of new natural disasters affecting the coastline, the report said.

Deficiencies

"Deficiencies in financial management were reflected in cases of irregular, excess and avoidable expenditure. Cases of non-utilisation and surrender of funds were also noticed. The process of identification of beneficiaries was deficient, resulting in ineligible persons receiving relief and eligible persons being deprived.

"There were delays in rehabilitation activities in respect of construction of permanent houses and basic infrastructure. Imprudent procurement led to non-utilisation of relief materials. Monitoring needs to improve at the State as well as Central levels."

The report said the Home Ministry "needs to critically review the status of utilisation of funds by calling for periodic reports regularly and communication the results of such review at a sufficiently high level in the respective State Government for ensuring improvement."

The Ministry could also consider a system of rewards and incentives to States, which show good compliance with the reporting requirement and display financial discipline.

It needs to put in place a generally acceptable system of damage assessment and determine the general criteria for assessment of the quantum of assistance, the report said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail