NEW DELHI, Aug 25: Not West Bengal alone, but 19 other states have been discovered diverting funds meant for Centrally-sponsored developmental schemes to paying salaries and other non-developmental purposes. The volume of funds diverted in this manner is estimated to run into Rs 451 crore.

While the West Bengal government diverted Rs 13.51 crore under the Jawahar Rojgar Yogna (JRY) and Rs 4.29 crore under the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) as per the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report, Uttar Pradesh topped the list of defaulting states with Rs 116 crore.

It seems that a large amount of funds were simply diverted by the states without least regard for rules governing such schemes.

However, the difference between the West Bengal and other states is that while the Basu government used the Personal Ledger Accounts (PLA) to divert funds, other states did not bother to cover up the misuse.

With a CAG inquiry pending into the West Bengal PLA scam, other states `guilty' of diversion of funds are worried.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh has a job ahead covering up for the Rs 51 crore meant for JRY scheme. Similarly, the Kerala government will face trouble explaining the diversion of Rs 70 crore. Bihar, under then Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, is said to have diverted Rs 56 crore. The states which were found to be diverting small amounts were Haryana (Rs 1.28 crore), Jammu and Kashmir (Rs 16 lakh), Sikkim (Rs 4 lakh), Orissa (Rs 71 lakh) and Arunachal Pradesh (Rs 34 lakh)The states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Assam and Meghalaya neither diverted central funds and nor misused them, the documents revealed. In fact, Parliament's Standing Committee of Parliament on Urban and Rural Development in its 7th report said that the state of West Bengal not only diverted central funds into PL Accounts to use it for disbursement of salaries of their staff but also showed as state's own revenue earning to claim overdraft from the Reserve Bank of India.

The Committee in its report also observed that the Centre should not release second and third installment of funds under these scheme unless a utilisation certificate is procured from the state governments.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.