CAG picks holes in distribution of relief to PoK displaced families
“No survey carried out or data base maintained for establishing the identities of displaced persons”
Srinagar: Financial assistance worth crores of rupees has been made to ineligible people under Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package for displaced families from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has said.
No survey was carried out or data base maintained for establishing the identities of displaced persons, says the report by the national auditor adding “64 ineligible or doubtful cases were paid financial assistance of 3.52 crore”.
The CAG report further exposed that in 40 cases involving 80 applicants, copies of same documents were used twice. Financial assistance “had been claimed twice separately by individuals by splitting families or by misrepresentation of facts, which led to undue (wrong) payment of Rs 2.31 crore”, the report revealed.
Financial assistance worth rupees 2000 crores had been sanctioned under Prime Ministers Development Package in 2015 for displaced families from PoK and Chhamb. The assistance under one time settlement was to be provided to 36,384 families but the identification of beneficiaries had been without genuine documents, the CAG report said.
The CAG analyzed some data and found that out of 2730 cases, legal heir certificates from Assistant Commissioners (Revenue)/Tehsildars in support of claims had been sought in 75 cases (16 per cent) only. In nine per cent of the cases no proof had been obtained, it said.
Dwelling on the cases with deficiencies in documentation, CAG observed that the concerned department had not put in place a robust mechanism for identification of legal heirs of displaced persons. No proper procedure was adopted with regard to requirement of legal heir certificates/affidavits/ Power of Attorney/Court decree etc., it said.
The audit noticed that no control register had been maintained by concerned officers in Jammu for recording details of copies of Form A29/ Loan ledger30/ Nominal Roll31 (certified by PRO/ Deputy PRO) issued to claimants in accordance with the guidelines. The procedure could have guarded against usage by the claimants more than once for claiming assistance under the scheme, it said.
“These omissions of procedure and documentation had resulted in recommendation of 54 ineligible and doubtful cases for financial assistance”, the report said.
The national auditor test checked records of 256 cases of displaced persons who lived in relief camps in Jammu district and found that copies of ration cards were not found attached in 22 per cent of the cases.
The auditor further noticed that in 201 cases the power of attorney from legal heirs was found attached only in 14 per cent cases and in 77 per cent of cases involving payment of Rs 7.47 crore, only affidavits of legal heirs were on record.
In the disbursement of Rs 80 lakh no document was attached to establish genuineness of claimants, it said.
Rashid Paul is Associate Editor at Kashmir Images.
He can be reached at [email protected]
