Public Accounts Committee 1960-61
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PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE 1960-61 THIRTY -SIXTH REPORT (SECOND LOK SABHA) [Audit Report on the Accounts ot' the Damodar Valley Corporation for thc year 1958-591 LO'K SABHA SECRETARIAT NEN DELHI April, 1961/Chaitra,1883 (Saka) Price : Re. 0.75 nP. LIST OF AUTHORISED AGENTS OF LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT ANDHRA PRADESH 15. The New Order 28. D. B. Taraporavala Book Company, Ellis & Sons, Co., (P) Limb I. G. R. Lakshmi- Bridge, Ahmedabad- ted, 210, Dr. Naoroji Chetty and 6. Road, Bombay-I. 8 General Mer- Newa 16. Swadeshi Vastu Bhan- 29. Deccan Book Stall, Newpet, dar, Booksellers e~., Fergusson College Road, Jamnagar. Poona-4. 30.. The Good Compa- KERALA nlons, Raspura, Baroda. 2. Hindustan Diary Pub- 17. C. V. Venkitachala lishers, Market Street, Iyer, Near Railway 31. The Imperial Book Secundrrabad. Station, Chalakudi. Depot, 266, Mahatma Gandhi , ,ad, Poorfa. 3. Hydcrabad Book De- 18. International Rook P Abid Road (Gun House, Main Road, The International Ekdry), Hydera- Trivandrum. 32book House, Private bad. Ltd., 9, Ash Lane, 4. International Consul- MADHYA PRADESH Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bombay-I. C. Marredpally,Corpora'on, (East),489 19ig6,Modern Jawahar Book House, 33. The International Ganj* Book Service, Deccan Secunderabad-3. Jabalpur-I. j. K. J. Asservadam and Gymkhana, Poona-4. Sons, Cloughpet, P. 0. 20. The IndoreLaw 34. Minerva Book Shop, Ongole, Ciuntur Dis- H~Use3 Old Shop No. 1/80, Ne~aii trict (Andhra Pra- i\gr&urtOpp' Subhash Road, Marme desh). Indore. Drive, Bombay-2. 6. M. S. R. Murthy & 35. The New Book Company, Visakhapat- MADRAS Company (P) Limited, nam. Kitab Mahal, 188-90, 7. People's Book 'House, 21. E. M. Gopalkrish- Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji B. 2-82911, Nitam na Kone, (Shri Gopal Road, Rombay. Shahi Road, Hydera- Mahal), North Chitrai 36. The New Book De- bad- I. Street, Madura. pot, Modi NO. 3, Nag- 8. The Triveni Publi- 22. The Kalpana Pub- pur. Masulipatnam' lishers, Booksrllefi, Tri- Popular Book chinopoly-3. 37bTizt(Registered), La- BIHAR mington Road, Bom- 23. The Presidencv Btok bay-7. Supplies, 8 -C, Pvcro- 9. Amar Kitab Ghar ft's Road, Triplicane, 38. Cahitya Sangam, Book- Diagonal Road, Jam Madras-5. sellen, 44, Lok Manya shedpur~. 24, S. Krishnaswami & Vastu Bhandar, Dadar, 10. Book Centre, Opp. company,0. 0. T~~~~- Bombay-28. Paula College, Patna. kularn, Trichirapalli- I I. 'Jagriti', Bhagal- 2. purz. 25. The Swadesamitran Lim~ted, Mount Road, MYSORE GUJARAT Madras-2. 39. H. Venkataramiah & 12. Chanderkant Chi- Sons, Vidyanidhi Book man La1 Vora, Law MAHARASH'I'R4 Depot, New Statue Publishers and Circle, Mysore. Law 26 Charles hmber&ahf 40. Makkalapwtaka Press, Book Sellers P. B. Company, 101, 57/21 Ghandi tma Gandhi Road, Opp. Naear,Balamandira, ~~~~~l~~~-~, Ganhh Road, Ahmedabad. Clock Tower, Fort, 13. Gandhi Samir Bombay. 41. People's Book House, Trust, Bhavnagar. 17. The Current Book ::[' M~~~~~~.Jaganmohan Pa- 14. Lok Milap, Distri. House, Maruti Lane, Court Road, Bhavna- Raghunath Dadaji Street, 42. Pewaie's 5~0kHouse gar. Bombay-I. Koppikar Road, Hubli. C ORR IGEN DA ---.---I--- * Thirty-sixth Report d- P A.C. (second Lok ,satha) -For -Read in tact Eng inee ring c old 1,000 ft. control oat thing Coal. Rh 1 &5,02 stalem te 2.3 quarters. quartera resahg 13e sult ing Prn . Composition of the Public Accounts Committee, 1960-61 . (iii) PARTI Introduction. , . , . r . (4 Chapters: I. General Financial Review of the Expenditure on the Project during . thtyt,:s1958-59 . r . I Id Engineering, Machinery and Stores . 6 111. Financial Irregularities and Infructuous Expenditure . I I Proceedings of the Sittings of the Public Accounts Committee- Thirty-fifth* Sitting held on Wednesday the 14th December, 1960 . Thirty-sixth Sitting held on Thursday the 15th December, 1960 . Forty-sixth Sitting held on Saturday, the 1st April, 1961 . APPENDIX Summary of main Conclusions/Recommendations . * *Eatlier Sittinge Ante to the consideration of the Appropriation Accounm-P &T, Rnilwap Civil and Defence Services, etc. COMPOSITION OF THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE Shri Upendranath Barman MEMBERB ha Rohan La1 Chaturvedi. Shri, Maneklal Maganlal Gandhi. Shri R. S. Kiledar. Shri Vinayak Rao K. Koratkar. Shri T. Manaen. Shri G. K. Manay. Shri S. A. Matin. Shri Baishnab Charan Mullick. Shri T. R. Neswi. Shri Shamrao' Vishnu Parulekar. Shri Purushottamdas R. Patel. Shri Radha Raman. Dr. N. C. Samantsinhar. Pandit Dwarka Nath Tiwary. Shrimati Sharda Bhargava. Shri Jashaud Singh Bisht. Shri Surendra Mohan Ghose. Dr. Shrimati Seeta Pannanand. Ski V. C. Kesava Rao. Shri Mulka Govinda Reddy. Shri Jaswant Singh. Shri V. Subramanian-Deputy Secretary. Shri Y. P. Passi-Under Secretary. # *Elected on the 25th November, 1960 vice Shri Fercae Gandhi died. (5) I, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee having been authorised by the Committee to present on their behalf, present this Thirty-sixth Report on the Audit Report on the Accounts of the Damodar Valley Corporation for the year 1958-59. 2. The Audit Report in question was laid on the Table of the Hwse on the 2nd August, 1960. 3. JI'he Committee examined the Audit Report at their sittings held on the,l4th and 15th December, 1960. 4. A brief record of the proceedings of each sitting of the Com- mittee has been maintained and forms part of the Report (Part 11). 5. The 30th Report of the Committee (1959-60) relating to the Accounts of the Damodar Valley Corporation had been presented to the House in August, 1960. The Committee regret to observe that despite repeated reminders, the Ministry of Irrigation and Power have not furnished the noteslstatements showing action taken by Government on the recommendations of the Committee even by the end of March, 1961. The Committee could not, therefore, examine and satisfy themselves about the adequacy of the action taken on their recommendations. The Committee have repeatedly stressed the importance of furnishing such notes within the prescribed time of one month. They would draw attention to their recommendation in pma 5(lntro.) of their 34th Report (1960-61) and urge that the notes in question be furnished without any further delay. 6. The Public Accounts Committee (1959-60) had expressed con- cern over the non-realisation of irrigation revenue by the Corpora- tion from the West Bengal Government. They note that claims amounting to Rs. 3.12 crores are outstanding against that Govern- ment. They regret to learn that the matter is pending settlement of certain diferences of opinion between the State Government and the Corporation. It is quite obvious that any financial difliculty experienced by the Corporation because of non-payment of such dues will have to be overcome by drawing upon the loan capital provided by the Participating Governments. Such a course will increase the interest liability and in turn lead to overcapitalisation. The Com- mittee, therefore, trust that in the interests of the Corporation and the Parti~ipatingGovernments alike, the matter will be settled quickly. (vi) 7. The Committee considered and approved this Report at their sitting held on the 1st April, 1961. 8. A statement showing the summary of the main reeornmenda- tiuns/conclusions of the Committee has been appended to this Re- port. For facility of reference, these have been printed in italics in the body of the Report also. 9. The Committee place on record their appreciation of the as- sistance rendered to them in their examination of these accounts by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. NEW DELHI; UPENDMATH EARMAN, Dated- the 3rd April, 1961. Chairman, Chaitra 13, 1883 (Saka). Public Accounts Committee. GENERAL FINANCIAL REVIEW OF THE EXPENDITURE OF THE PROJECT DURING THE YEAR 1958-59 The Damodar Valley Scheme which is a multipurpose project for tb.unified development of the Damodar River Valley aims at (1) Flood, ContrN; (2) Irrigation; (3) Generation and transmission af electricity; (4) Promotion of all-the-year round navigation; (5) Pro- motion d afforestation and control of soil erosion in the Damodar Valley; and (6) the promotion of public health and agricultural, in- dustrial, economic and general well-being of the people in the Damo- dar Valley and its area of operation. 2. Pursuant to these objectives, a phased programme was worked out. The present programme comprises: (i) four dams at Tilaiya, Konar, Maithon and Panchet Hill with a Hydro-electric station attached to each (except in the case of Konar where the construction of the station has been deferred on financial gxwunds) ; (ii) a thermal power station at Bokaro with 200,000 K.W. ultimate capacity; (iii) a grid covering over 800 miles of transmission lines and a number of sub-stations and receiving stations; and (iv) an irrigation barrage at Durgapur with 1,550 miles of irrigation-cum-navigation channels. 3. The total expendhture chargeable to these Projects undertaken by the Corporation is allocated among the three main objects viz., Power, Irrigation and Flood Control and the total amount of capital is provided by the three participating Governments viz., the Central Government, the State Gcwernments of Bihar and West Bengal in the manner envisaged in Sections 30-36 of the D.V.C. Act, 1948. The Co~porationhave to pay interest at such rate as may from time to time be fixed by the Central Government. For a period not exceed- ing 15 years from the date of the establishment of the Corporation (ie. upto 1963) the interest charges are being capitalised. 4. During, and to the end of, the year 1958-59, the following amounts yere provided by the Participating Governments viz., the Govepment of India, the Governments of West Bengal and Bilia., .as cGpital required for the execution of the projects undertaken by D.V.C. Government of India 3,09P,9oo 31,25,86,167 Govemmant of West Ben@ 17,74,oWo'3 75~58~03,633 Government of Bihar 3,17,0'%000 24,69,77,- Total 14#v"W30 1,31,53,66,800 The capital expenditure during, and to the end of, the year, 1958-59 on the three main objects, viz., Power, Irrigation, Flood Control, and .