The use of identical photographs for multiple claims, incorrect classification of damaged houses, duplicate transactions worth Rs 18.07 crore, and grants sanctioned on the recommendations of local political leaders. These are some of the irregularities that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has flagged in its report on relief distribution and restoration work in West Bengal following Cyclone Amphan in 2020. The CAG has noted that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government’s estimates of damage were “not supported by proper evidence”.The auditor analysed 31,457 photographs and found that in 3,126 cases identical photographs were uploaded against the names of multiple beneficiaries. This suggested that undue house-building grants might have been extended, though the exact amount could not be quantified because the photographs were not linked to beneficiary forms, the CAG said. Using a data analytics tool to parse through the records of 19.38 lakh beneficiaries in six districts, the CAG also found that house-building grants were credited more than once — in some cases up to nine times — into the bank accounts of 9,226 beneficiaries through 18,891 transactions. No mechanism existed to prevent duplicate payments, the report noted.AdvertisementThe report also confirms The Indian Express’s report at the time on local leaders with ties to political parties benefitting from relief disbursal.Read | Numbers to hospitals empanelled: CAG flags breaches in TMC government insurance schemeThe CAG found that the districts of North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas withdrew Rs 1,383.23 crore out of the total house-building grant of Rs 1,948.51 crore — nearly 71% — from the treasury and parked it in commercial bank accounts, before making direct benefit transfers (DBTs). This was “highly irregular” under the West Bengal Treasury Rules, the auditor noted. These grants were often sanctioned based on the recommendations of local leaders without mandatory field inspections and the reports of local inquiry committees were ignored, the auditor said.For instance, in South 24 Parganas, Rs 22.84 crore was disbursed in the Magrahat-I block and Maheshtala Municipality based on single-page applications that did not have Aadhaar or voter identity details, bank passbooks, inspection reports, or photographs of the damaged houses.AdvertisementIn the cyclone’s aftermath, The Indian Express visited several villages in the cyclone-hit districts of Howrah, North 24 Parganas, Purba Medinipur, and South 24 Parganas, including the Sundarbans delta, finding that relatives of politically powerful members of Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis, and Zilla Parishads had been approved for compensation even if there was no damage to their homes. Many of these beneficiaries were from the TMC since it dominated the panchayats at the time, but there were also cases from the BJP and the CPI(M).The Purulia anomalyAmong other things, the audit questioned the classification of damaged houses. “It is evident that either many partially damaged houses were included in the category of fully damaged houses during assessment or these households were included later for reasons not on record,” the report said. It flagged Purulia as an anomaly, noting that although the western district was not among the worst affected, all damaged homes there were categorised as “fully damaged”.The audit also identified doubtful transactions worth around Rs 5 crore. Using the auditing software, the CAG found that Rs 93.95 lakh was paid to 1,576 beneficiaries whose claims had already been rejected.The CAG also flagged irregularities in crop assistance. In South 24 Parganas, it found mismatches in nearly 1.41 lakh cases involving Rs 120.39 crore out of 8.62 lakh successful transactions. Similar discrepancies involving Rs 4.68 crore were found in Nadia, Paschim Medinipur, and Purba Medinipur.In horticulture assistance, the audit found that while the state had claimed Rs 15.67 crore for damage to betel vine cultivation, covering 8,704.7 hectares, it eventually allotted Rs 81.29 crore, resulting in an excess allocation of Rs 65.62 crore.What TMC govt soughtAmphan made landfall near Sagar Island in the Sundarbans on May 20, 2020, with wind speed touching 133 kmph. Sixteen of West Bengal’s 23 districts were affected, with North and South 24 Parganas the worst hit. Nearly 60% of the state’s population was affected, with 99 deaths and extensive damage to houses, agriculture, fisheries, forests, power infrastructure, and health facilities.The West Bengal government, in a memorandum submitted in June 2020, estimated total losses at Rs 1.02 lakh crore and sought Rs 35,018 crore as assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).However, an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT), in its September 2020 report, recommended central assistance of only Rs 2,500.29 crore. Following the deliberations of the National Executive Committee, assistance of Rs 2,707.77 crore was approved, subject to adjustments under SDRF norms. The Ministry of Home Affairs eventually released Rs 2,250.28 crore from the NDRF after adjusting the available SDRF balance.On December 1, 2020, the Calcutta High Court directed the CAG to conduct a financial and performance audit after several PILs alleged corruption and diversion of Amphan relief funds.Referring to the IMCT findings, the CAG noted that the IMCT substantially reduced the physical damage estimates across sectors, leading to a sharp reduction in recommended central assistance.The CAG recommended that the state government investigate the entire relief distribution process, recover payments made to ineligible beneficiaries, strengthen internal controls and fix responsibility for the irregularities.On July 25, the BJP government tabled 28 long-pending CAG reports in the Assembly — including one on the TMC government’s Swasthya Sathi insurance scheme — and announced that a special session would be convened to discuss them. The TMC government had committed a “constitutional lapse” by not placing them in the House in the last four years, it added.