Chhattisgarh's Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board has made an 'infructuous expenditure' of Rs 1.03 crore, without fulfilling its purpose, state's Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report said on Friday.
The report on the state's Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board, from September 2008 to February 2012, which was presented in the legislative Assembly by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh in the House on Friday, said that the expenditure was incurred on the Sanjeevani Ambulance Scheme.
'Checks of the Board's records revealed that ambulances allotted were utilised for administrative purposes like registration and awareness campaign of these departments, but not a single vehicle was used for providing medical facilities to labourers or beneficiaries," the CAG report said about the Sanjeevani Ambulance Scheme which was effective from April 2010, for which the Board had purchased 15 ambulances.
Chhattisgarh's Department of Labour had introduced the Sanjeevani Ambulance Scheme to provide "immediate free medical facilities" whenever accidents took place at construction sites, the report said.
Supply orders for these ambulances were issued in two rounds at a cost of Rs 69.76 lakh and issued to labour offices in different districts of Chhattisgarh, the report said.
Further, it was noticed that Rs 20.68 lakh for drivers' salaries and Rs 13.45 lakh for fuel charges were incurred by the Board under the scheme, the report said.
Thus, "infructuous expenditure" of Rs 1.03 crore under the Sanjeevani Ambulance scheme was incurred without fulfilling its purpose, the report said.
The report also said that the Secretary of the Chhattisgarh State Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board replied that ambulances were being utilised for "various programmes and other related activities".
"The replies are acceptance of the fact that ambulances were either underutilized or misutilised, which defeated the very purpose of the scheme," the report said.
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