Patna, July 20: The latest report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, tabled in the state Assembly today suggests that the Bihar government appears to have failed to take proper care of secondary education.
“The implementation of the secondary education programmme suffered right from the planning stage due to lack of reliable data, absence of long-term plans and realistic annual plans of operation,” reads the report.
It says there is gross mismatch between number of classrooms, bench-desks and number of students enrolled in the 241 test-checked schools.
“Against the required number of 58,760 teachers in the state as per common education commissions’ report, the sanctioned strength of teachers was 34,223 against which 26,631 teachers were available in the state,” further reads the report.
The report is also very critical about the functioning of forest department and says that achievement of compensatory afforestation was nil despite huge amounts were available in the compensatory afforestation management planning authority fund.
The report also says that improper funding and absence of management plans coupled with inadequate patrolling, lack of infrastructure and large scale vacancies adversely affected the development of wildlife sanctuaries including the Valmiki Tiger Reserve, where tiger population of 33 (2005) was reduced to 10 (2008).
While making the performance audit of some of the government departments, CAG office took stock of the functioning of past five years with cut-off date being March 31, 2010.
On the revenue front the report says that in 2009-10 the state government’s own contribution to tax revenue was only 27 per cent of the total revenue of Rs 35,526.83 crore. Test checks conducted in different departments revealed that during 2009-10, the state had a revenue loss of Rs 2,399.68 crore because of underassessment/short levy.
The CAG report has also put a question mark on the way Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam, which has often been referred to as a success story of a government enterprise, functions.
