"No breakthrough has been achieved and the gap between the two has actually increased. At the end of March 1999, irrigation potential of 2.96 million hectare remained to be utilised," it said.

In absolute terms Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are yet to utilise irrigation potential of one lakh hectare to 6.61 lakh hectare, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar leading with unutilised potential of 6.61 lakh hectare and 5.84 lakh hectare respectively.

In Bihar the irrigation potential decreased from 16.76 lakh hectare to 11.92 lakh hectare over 1990-97, it pointed. The major reason for this is the failure of the ministry to target completion of individual command area development projects within a fixed time frame, CAG said adding a large number of projects have been carried out in perpetuity.

"Of the 227 projects taken up, only 10 have been completed as on March 1998," it said. Moreover, construction of field channels, land levelling and shaping and drains, among others have been taken up in uncoordinated manner, the study said.

The ministry did not also properly control and monitor various programmes in as much as it did not even poses up to date data regarding extent of farm development works, which foreclosed any possibility of remedial action.The performance relating to adoptive trials and demonstration of the latest variety of seeds and various crops among others, beneficiary participation in irrigation management was lackadaisical, it observed.

Also the ministry was negligent in providing the component of reclamation of water log area in time, which has rendered large part of command areas water logged, it said. Meanwhile, CAG also said that ineffective implementation of centrally sponsored schemes like drought- prone areas programme has resulted in an increase in the area under this category to 74.6 million hectares in 1995 from 55.3 million hectares in 1973-74.

The ministry of rural areas and employment has been implementing drought- prone areas programme for the last two decades and nearly Rs 2,195 crore had been spent with the objective of sheltering drought- prone areas from the vagaries of recurrent drought.

``No perceptible overall improvement in the position is discernible,'' CAG pointed out in its recent report.

None of the states had reported complete development of the drought- prone areas or projects to ensure their drought proofing, CAG said adding that neither the ministry nor the state governments evaluated the effectiveness of the programme.

CAG said the inability of the union ministries to monitor execution of the scheme and ensure fulfilment of objectives in a cost effective and time- bound manner, had resulted in the programmes being executed in an uncontrolled manner without quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the results. As many as eight state governments did not use scientific techniques like aerial photography and remote sensing for identification of watershed and the work in these projects was taken up without conducting a detailed survey of the soil topography.

In two states, the programme was implemented in blocks which did not meet the prescribed criteria for being treated as drought- prone and Rs 7.34 crore was spent, the report pointed out.

Overlapping objectives of a multiplicity of rural development programmes had resulted in blurring of focus, it said. Besides, absence of accountability had affected the implementation of the programme.

The report said that the concerned ministry needed to modify the programme, drawing from expert advice and also following from the recommendations of public accounts committee and estimates committee to integrate the area development programmes to achieve greater focus and accountability.