Unbuilt schools, unspent flood relief: CAG notes many lapses by governments of erstwhile J&K state

At least 128 solar power plants installed at a cost of Rs 9.70 crore on police establishments in Jammu and Kashmir have been defunct since 2014. The reason: the spare parts needed to repair them were impounded by the Commercial Taxes Department because tax was not paid on them by the Home Department. The problem has been unresolved since January 2015.

More than 1.3 lakh ration cards printed by the Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department between 2015-’18 were not distributed among consumers, costing the public exchequer Rs 1.07 crore. They were valid only until June 2018, so cannot be distributed now.

These are just two of the many instances of failures of governments of the erstwhile state pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its latest audit findings relating to Jammu and Kashmir.

These instances are part of the report on “Social, General, Economic and Revenue sectors” for the year ending March 31, 2019. It was tabled in the Parliament in March.

While the audit was carried out in 2018-’19, it includes instances from earlier years that had not been reported in the previous reports. In August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded from being a state and given the status of…

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