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Unaffordable Generosity
The CAG
pulls up successive regimes in Uttar Pradesh for squandering public money.
India Today's Subhash Mishra reports.
It
has been a long season of gifts and gratuity in Uttar Pradesh. And for
all the wrong reasons. In the past 10 years, the governors and the chief
ministers of the state squandered crores of rupees of the exchequer to
serve personal and political interests, says a report by the Comptroller
and Auditor General (cag). While the cag report 1999-2000 presented the
misuse of funds during the rule of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh's
reign in 1991 and governors Moti Lal Vora and Romesh Bhandari, the report
on the regimes of chief ministers Kalyan Singh (second term of 1997-99),
Ram Prakash Gupta (1999-2000) and Rajnath Singh (2000-2) will be tabled
soon in the Assembly.
The money, spent without any discretion, and any justifications, came
from the Chief Minister's Discretionary Fund (cmdf) meant for the poor
and deprived sections. During his reign in 1991 and 1993-1995, Mulayam
doled out money to press clubs. While Kalyan Singh distributed lakhs of
rupees to religious and casteist organisations. Gupta blessed Saraswati
Shishu Mandir and other rss institutions and Rajnath Singh went on a spending
spree on his constituency just before the elections.
Governors Vora and Bhandari too spent public money during their terms
from December 7, 1992 to December 4, 1993 and from October 19, 1995 to
March 20, 1997 respectively. The state was under President's rule and
the cmdf came under gubernatorial authority. All this was in violation
of the government rules while the state remained starved of funds for
developmental work. According to the cmdf Rules, 1999, Rs 5,000 can be
allotted to physically challenged people, destitute widows, children and
institutions engaged in social and cultural work; Rs 20,000 to poor families
and grants up to Rs 1 lakh for non-governmental educational institutions.
Funds can't be given to beneficiaries more than once in the same year.
The rules were thrown to the winds. From 1998-99 to 2001-2, the bjp chief
ministers-Kalyan Singh, Gupta and Rajnath Singh-distributed Rs 54 crore,
with Rajnath Singh topping with Rs 25 crore. In 2001-2 alone he spent
Rs 20 crore, twice over 1998-99, on select people. They also sanctioned
money to religious, caste and political organisations, with scant regard
for cmdf rules that funds should not be given to such institutions. Kalyan
Singh sanctioned money to casteist organisations like Kurmi Chatriya Sabha,
Lucknow, Awanthi Bai Lodhi Sansthan and Pasi Sewa Trust, Dehradun; and
Gupta to Nishad Samaj Jagran Samiti, Jaunpur, which was also funded by
Rajnath Singh along with Dargah Alia Najphe Hind, Bijnor. Departing from
norms, Rajnath Singh gave non-government schools-most of them managed
by politicians- Rs 7 crore and with no sufficient reason. Twenty-one institutions
got money more than twice a year, the grants amounting to Rs 3 crore.
The government has no record on how this money was spent as in most cases
the utilisation certificate is yet to be received. Rajnath Singh also
gave Rs 3 lakh twice to one Mamta Singh, for installing a statue of her
husband and local politician Gauri Bhaiyya in Balrampur. There is no provision
in cmdf to fund statues. The fourth estate was pampered by Rajnath Singh,
who made six of the seven sanctions (in lakhs of rupees) to press clubs
which are not eligible to receive government money. But this pales in
comparison with Mulayam's passion-he sanctioned almost Rs 1 crore to 10
press clubs and journalists.
The last four years saw money going to individuals and institutions for
various reasons-purchasing vehicles, publishing books, going for overseas
trips and even giving a Maruti car as a wedding gift. The cag audited
the major cases and found that more than Rs 3 crore was given in 54 instances.
Here is a teaser: Kalyan Singh granted Rs 25 lakh to Shaheed Smarak Trust,
Balrampur, for construction and Rajnath Singh sanctioned Rs 11 lakh for
a meditation centre at Ram Chandra Mission, Allahabad. In the last three
years, 20 people got "financial assistance" from the government for going
abroad. Of this, eight were granted by Rajnath Singh in a year. Most of
them were on a "private mission", lets on a senior officer of the state
finance department. Mulayam's reign emerges as the frontrunner in frittering
in the last decade. He spent more than Rs 42 crore in just 21 months,
during his rule in 1991 and '93. Trying to please Muslims and Hindus,
he sanctioned Rs 36 lakh for an Idgah committee and Rs 10 lakh for the
construction of a temple. From 1994 to '97, the chief ministers and governors
together sanctioned Rs 20.04 lakh to 77 persons-Mulayam gave grants to
34 people and the then governor Bhandari pleased 24 individuals.
Mulayam sanctioned Rs 2 lakh to assembly speaker Dhanik Ram Verma to take
his son along to Canada, where he was attending 40th Commonwealth Parliamentary
Conference. Bhandari sanctioned Rs 75,000 to Dr (Mrs) N. Sharma of Lucknow
University's botany department for her France visit and Rs 55,000 to Sudha
Jain of chemistry department to go to Chicago, without a university recommendation.
Vora favoured bar associations and judge's clubs, giving them lakhs of
rupees without recording any reason for the grants. He definitely had
not forgotten his home state-Rs 20 lakh was granted to Tulsi Manas Pratishthan
and Kshetriya Mali Samaj in Madhya Pradesh. The cmdf rules were not just
violated, the cag states these were also amended from time to time for
the chief ministers' convenience. The cag report may well have underlined
the fears of the public, whose hard-earned money is wasted by their political
bosses, on how the treasury became a stopover before the cash filled the
coffers of a few institutions and a few people's pockets.
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