Articles by Himanshu Upadhyaya

On December 2nd, a performance audit report by the CAG of India on Solid Waste Management by Urban Local Bodies in Odisha got tabled in the state assembly. This CAG audit covered the five year period (April 2015 to March 2020) and was conducted with the objective to assess whether the planning of waste management in ULBs were effective, efficient and economic. The period under review is of interest to all the researchers concerned with the compliance of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, as Odisha state has been facing a legal battle with regard to compliance at National Green Tribunal,…

In the recently concluded monsoon session of the Karnataka state assembly, two audit reports by the CAG of India were tabled: Report No 1 of 2020, tabled on September 22, pertains to State Finances of Karnataka Government for the year 2018-19.Report No 2 of 2020, tabled on September 23, presents the Performance Audit on Implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act. (Read the English version of the CAG report here, and the Kannada version here.) Also, on September 23, CAG’s Audit Report on Union Government (Finance Accounts) for the year 2018-19 was tabled in parliament. This showed a savings of…

During the recently concluded monsoon session of the Karnataka state assembly two audit reports by the CAG of India were tabled.  Report No 1 of 2020 - tabled on 22nd September - pertains to State Finances of Karnataka Government for the year 2018-19. Report No 2 of 2020 - tabled on 23rd September - presents the Performance Audit on Implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act. Read the Performance Audit Report in English hereRead the Performance Audit Report in Kannada here On September 23rd, CAG of India’s Audit Report on Union Government (Finance Accounts) for the year 2018-19 got tabled…

Close to 20 people killed in the city itself, several missing and over 3000 requiring rehabilitation -- Pune is grappling with the situation in the aftermath of the September flash floods, as the city and its adjoining areas saw over 100 millimetres of rain over a period of two days. While efforts are on to redeem the situation, environmentalists and analysts say that the writing had been on the wall for some time. And the authorities had even been warned about it… Flashback to August 2019 In the first week of August, Pune experienced floods after around 100000 cusecs of…

The videos were all over the Internet and social media. Expectedly so, because you don't often see crocodiles swimming in flooded urban streets, sneaking up on strays. But that's precisely what happened shortly after news of ‘urban floods’ in Vadodara hit headlines in early August. The city witnessed scary flash floods following spells of intense rain, bringing back memories of what the city had witnessed in June 2005 and then again in the monsoon of 2014, the latter perhaps leading to the coinage of the phrase ‘urban floods’. Back in 2014, ecologists had spoken up to communicate their worries to…

Mumbai, July 2005. Surat, August 2006. Chennai, December 2015. All these cities have shown us the costs of disregarding and abusing our urban commons and wetlands, which used to be referred to in Taamizh language with respect, using a special term: Poromboke. The question is, are we willing to see and learn? Every instance of heavy rainfall in a city reminds us what happens when our urban development authorities and administration ignore the rivers and wetlands in our cities. Rivers Remember: #ChennaiRains and the Shocking Truth of a Manmade Flood by Krupa Ge is one more stark pointer. The book…

Riding on the wave of riverfront development as exemplified by the Gujarat Sabarmati Riverfront project, the Uttar Pradesh government approved the Gomti Riverfront Development Project (GRDP) at an estimated cost of Rs 656.58 crore in March 2015.  By September 2017, Rs 1447.84 crore had already been spent, though the project still remains incomplete. Now, in a CAG audit report tabled on February 7 this year, the project has come under scathing criticism, on various grounds as outlined below: The case of the missing tender invites The office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India examined files of the project…

In mid December 2018, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s performance audit on Solid Waste Management (SWM) in 35 test-checked Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Karnataka was tabled at the state assembly. The report painted a rather sorry picture of the way these civic bodies had been going about the task of solid waste management in their municipalities and called out instances of flawed collection, ineffectual bans on plastic, faulty handling of e-waste and unauthorised slaughter houses among various other gaps. However, that is not where the CAG indictment of the ULBs ended. As per Paragraph 7.2 of…

In the last week of 2018, a hurriedly planned public consultation arranged by the Department of Municipal Administration of Karnataka to frame an updated Solid Waste Management Policy for the state had to be called off, following sharp criticism by activists and pourakarmikas (waste collectors). Protesters objected to the very short notice given for the consultation and the draft being circulated on the day of the meeting. For those wondering why the Department chose to act in such haste, it could be because of the negative observations of the constitutional auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), following…

In March 2009, the Rajasthan government approached the erstwhile union government, seeking central assistance for setting up the Jaipur Metro Project. Nine years later, a performance audit of the first phase of Jaipur Metro by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) reveals how this urban mobility project was pushed through with undue haste. This has raised questions over why certain due diligence protocols in the planning phase were undermined. The CAG performance audit tells us that in April 2009, the Union Government advised the Rajasthan government to prepare a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) in order to conduct a…