Tawi Barrage Project or the ‘Artificial Lake’ conceived primarily to provide a complete face lift to the landscape of Jammu, to further beautify the city and to make the spot as an attractive picnic destination and an allurement to the tourists visiting the State, had for, such reasons assumed much hype as it was one of the first such experiences to give a fillip to the captivating surroundings of the city of temples. Unfortunately, it may be recalled, work on it did not go smoothly and evenly and faced many impediments to the extent of it being declared as an abandoned project which later proved to be more of a speculation and less of a workable proposition. Most of the work on it, nearly 80 per cent is believed to have been completed but the remaining critical phase has been caused to face humps.
Why all that happened which were least expected with this promising project has been dealt with many a time during its forced interlude and hiatuses. No regular review meetings between the executing agencies and the concerned departments of the State Government were conducted to address bottlenecks and to see how the pending work could be expeditiously completed as also the progress of cases in respect of the project pending in the courts. Whether technical advice has periodically been collected commensurate with the stages of work from the designated technical bodies? Whether a proper trail of funds inflow and utilization thereof duly authenticated by external auditors and not only from the ones from the Government alone, has been kept on records duly verified? Whether the quality of work completed so far is tangential to or exactly matching the comprehensive project report requirements? These and many other issues are otherwise advisable to be looked into simultaneously along with the stages of the progress in the work, and even intermittently. Those obviously cannot be justified to be touched belatedly or as an afterthought or in response to some apprehensions about the breach of financial discipline and procedures.
However, it is a welcome step that the Government has decided and ordered as well, ‘special audit’ of the Tawi Barrage Project so that a clear picture could not only emerge but got known about the expenditure incurred so far in relation to the quantum of work completed. We have repeatedly been stressing upon making audits and inspections an inalienable part of the basic project report as if in its absence, funds spent would not be considered as having been genuinely spent and accordingly verified. Normally, a concurrent audit by external auditors, to be precise, by authorised professionals in the field of accounting, audits and cost analysis could take care of those things which seemingly having heaped up and are now felt to be addressed.
However, better late than never, a committee of officers appointed by the Principal Secretary to Government, Finance Department has to conduct the audit within a period of 15 days. Well, the exercise would verify the actual expenditure incurred by the executing agency M/s GVR Infra Projects Limited as also how much work in fact had been completed. This exercise going to be conducted though belatedly, would help the State Government not only in knowing the exact position of the project but help in the arbitration process in the Madras High Court in respect of this project as well. Whatever the case, this project has had to undergo a train of problems in the absence of which, it would have been completed without missing series of deadlines. The people want things to be delivered and evoke little interest in issues which due to host of reasons were allowed to come up impeding the work and instead want the project to be completed at an early date.
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