Thaindian News

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 25 (IANS) The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India Tuesday blamed the Kerala State Pollution Control Board, the urban local bodies and state government officials for not doing their job in effectively managing the waste generated in the state.

Accountant-General Biju Jacob told reporters here that these bodies have failed to identify the health hazards as well as the environmental risks thrown up due to dumping of waste in public places.

“Despite having a law, penal action was hardly taken against those dumping waste in public. Likewise open dumping of waste will continue in the absence of waste processing and scientific land filling, triggering environment and public health risks,” said Jacob

This was revealed in the latest CAG report for the last fiscal which was tabled in the assembly Tuesday.

The CAG noted that the need of the hour was to estimate the current capacity for waste handling and ensure capacity enhancement for handling more quantities in future.

The sole approved agency for solid waste management projects, Suchitwa Mission, also failed to monitor the execution of projects.

Coming to the auditing part the CAG found out that civic bodies has not effectively maintained asset registers.

“There was no system to consolidate the finances besides the correctness of the figures in the database on finances was also doubtful,” said the CAG report.

Another important aspect that was observed by the CAG was that when the share of the state government in the total receipt of local self government bodies came down from 74 percent in 2005-06 to 67 percent in 2009-10, the share of central government grant increased from seven percent to 16 percent.