From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Mar 16: In a major adverse indictment against the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has held that the civic body had failed to transfer Rs 1087 crore health cess collected by it to the State government for a period of five years between 2014-15 and 2018-19 and also lower portions of library and beggary cess than due.

The CAG report on Panchayat Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies for the year ended March 2019 and March 2020, said the BBMP owes the government Rs 1087 crore of health cess. It also has failed to remit Rs 226 crore library cess of Rs 434 crore collected and Rs 150 crore beggary cess of the total of Rs 217 crore collected. While the health cess has to be remitted to the State fund, the library cess goes to the district central city library. The beggar cess has to be transferred to the Central Relief Fund. The cess is collected to enable the government to improve related public services.

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In the BBMP limits, the property tax collection went up from 62% in 2014-15 to 77% in 2018-19, the CAG said.

The report noted that various Urban Local Bodies (ULB) have only remitted part of the cess collected to the departments concerned between 2014-15 and 2018-19. Across the state, ULBs are yet to transfer Rs 378 crore of health cess, Rs 60 crore of library cess and Rs 24 crore of beggary cess.

The CAG reports also noted about arrears in property tax in various ULBs. The arrears in ULBs have increased between 2014-15 and 2018-19 as the property tax collection has decreased from 80% in 2014-15 to 59 percent in 2018-19. Arrears adding up to Rs 503 crore in various ULBs by the end of 2018-19. The CAG report also revealed that the BBMP roads in Bengaluru were more hazardous for road users with an average of 19 to 20 hazards per km than State and National Highways.

The hazards per km on state highways were 8.87, major district roads - 8.43 and national highways - 7.39 hazards per km. It said joint inspections of sampled road stretches revealed that the BBMP roads were more hazardous than any other major roads in the State.The road managing agencies had also failed in timely identification and rectification of the identified black spots, where repeated and fatal accidents occurred.

The report said target set in the Karnataka State Road Safety Policy 2015, was not realised as the fatal accidents accounted for 30% of the road accidents in 2020 compared to 17.32% in 2015, though the number of fatalities declined by 22.24%, from 10,856 in 2015 to 9760 in 2020.

The number of accidents declined in 2020 owing to covid-19 induced lockdown in the state. The number of accidents declined from 44,011 in 2015 to 34178 in 2020, said the CAG report on Performance Audit on Functioning of Karnataka State Road Safety Authority. The number of persons injured declined from 56971 in 2015 to 39492 in 2020, the
report said.