Himachal Pradesh News
CAG Flags ₹22.61 Crore Misuse of Disaster Relief Funds Across Five Himachal Districts
A CAG audit has uncovered ₹22.61 crore in irregularities in the use of the State Disaster Response Fund across five Himachal Pradesh districts, revealing violations of SDRF norms, unauthorised works, missing damage reports and weak monitoring.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has uncovered irregularities amounting to ₹22.61 crore in the utilisation of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) across five districts of Himachal Pradesh. The findings, relating to the period ending March 2022, were tabled in the Vidhan Sabha on Friday by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
The audit, which examined sanctions issued between December 2016 and May 2021, found that the state-level committee responsible for supervising SDRF allocations failed to ensure compliance with the Union government’s strict utilisation norms. The fund is meant exclusively for immediate relief to victims of notified natural calamities, yet officials in Chamba, Mandi, Shimla, Sirmour and Solan authorised expenditures well beyond the permissible scope.
According to the report, Deputy Commissioners in these districts approved ₹10.23 crore for 823 inadmissible works. These included repairs of government buildings, residential quarters, court complexes, playgrounds, and construction of protection walls and wire crates—activities explicitly prohibited under SDRF rules.
The audit further noted that ₹3.37 crore was sanctioned in Chamba, Mandi and Solan without the mandatory damage assessment reports from revenue authorities. In another serious violation, Chamba and Sirmour districts released ₹1.76 crore for eight bridge repair works even though executing agencies had confirmed that no disaster-related damage had occurred.
A major lapse was recorded in Sirmour, where the Deputy Commissioner disbursed ₹7.25 crore in lump sum to 17 executing agencies without detailing the works involved or obtaining damage reports—significantly elevating the risk of misuse.
The CAG observed that the state-level committee had not established any effective mechanism for monitoring or reporting SDRF utilisation, allowing widespread deviations to go unchecked. Earlier audit observations from 2014–2017 had also raised similar concerns, which remained unresolved despite directives from the Public Accounts Committee.
District officials defended their decisions, citing the need to prevent damage to public property and maintain continuity of essential services. The audit, however, rejected these explanations as inconsistent with SDRF norms. The Deputy Commissioner of Mandi provided no response.
Despite being notified of the audit findings in January 2023, the state government had not submitted a reply as of January 2025. The CAG has recommended strengthening sanctioning procedures and enforcing strict adherence to disaster management guidelines to prevent future misuse.
