The Congress on Monday took a swipe at the government over alleged irregularities in several of the government projects highlighted by the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of India in its report, saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unleash torrents of lies from the ramparts of the Red Fort and questioned will he have the courage to question his own government and ministers about their corruption and incompetence.
The remarks from the Congress came after the CAG reports tabled in Parliament last week highlighted several alleged irregularities in the projects and schemes of the government.
In a statement, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "Tomorrow, the Prime Minister will unleash his torrent of lies from the ramparts of the Red Fort for one last time, taking off from his tsunami of lies to the nation in the Parliament last week. But will he have the courage to question his own government and his ministers on their corruption and incompetence?"
He said that last week the CAG tabled a series of reports in Parliament. Even a defanged CAG has been able to expose the corruption and incompetence of the Modi government.
Sharing a few of the alleged irregularities in the government projects and schemes highlighted by the CAG, Ramesh, who is also the party's communication in-charge said, "CAG has flagged an overall cost overrun of more than 100 per cent in the much-hyped Bharatmala Pariyojana. This project was approved and monitored by none other than the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) that is chaired by the Prime Minister."
He said that the sanctioned cost of the 26,316 km of highways that have been awarded was Rs 8,46,588 crore, as against the CCEA-approved length of 34,800 km at a cost of Rs 5,35,000 crore.
"This means that these projects were awarded at a cost of Rs 32.17 crore per km, more than double the cost of Rs 15.37 crore per km approved by the CCEA. Despite multiple cost overruns, only 13,499 km of national highways have been completed till 31 March 2023, less than 39 per cent of the CCEA-approved length," Ramesh said.
He said that the CAG also raised concerns about the inflated project cost of the Dwarka Expressway, which went up 14 times from the sanctioned Rs 18 crore per km to Rs 250 crore per km.
Ramesh added that the CAG has also highlighted irregularities in the Bharatmala bidding process – successful bidders not fulfilling tender conditions, bidders being selected on the basis of falsified documents, work awarded without approved detailed project reports or faulty DPRs and the diversion of funds to the tune of Rs 3,598.52 crore from escrow accounts.
"Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for this incompetence and corruption in the Bharatmala projects under his direct watch?" he questioned.
He also pointed out that the CAG has uncovered violations of toll rules, with NHAI wrongly collecting Rs 132.05 crore from commuters in just 5 randomly audited toll plazas. At the same time, the NHAI lost revenue of Rs 133.36 crore due to lack of provision for revenue sharing in concession agreements in two sections of NH projects.
"If this audit were extrapolated to the whole country, the overall loss to the exchequer and the commuters would amount to lakhs of crores. Will the Prime Minister take action against the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways?" he asked.
"The CAG has reported payouts to the dead in the Prime Minister’s favourite Ayushman Bharat Scheme. 88,760 patients had died during treatment and yet, 2,14,923 claims were shown as paid in respect of ‘fresh treatments’ given to these dead ‘patients’.
"Other than that, 7.5 lakh recipients were linked to a single mobile number and 4,761 registrations made against seven Aadhar numbers. In total there are more than 1.24 crore fake beneficiaries linked to only 1,86,855 mobile numbers," he said, asking the Prime Minister if he will order an investigation on who were the real beneficiaries of this massive Digital India scam in Ayushman Bharat.
He said that the CAG has raised similar questions on irregularities in the Ayodhya Development Project and the diversion of old page pension funds under the National Social Assistance Programme for publicity of the Modi government’s schemes instead.
"We demand answers from the Prime Minister and also that he break his silence," he added.
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