“Major Portion of Grants in Just Two Districts”: Comptroller and Auditor General of India Flags Karnataka’s Skewed Sports Infra Push

Accountability plays a very important role in the success of any ambitious project. A lack in the same can ensure leakages of funds and implementation inconsistencies, causing delayed projects with compromised quality.

Such is the case seen in the comptroller and auditor general's report on Karnataka's sports infrastructure development. One part of the report contained delayed release of cash incentives along with discrepancies in awards to Karnataka sportspersons by the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (DYES), while the other part had major regional disparity detections complemented with management inadequacies.

Let's throw light on the regional disparity in distribution of funds. The data is shocking, with only 0-6% of the entire funds having been allocated to 29 out of 31 districts. Additionally, Bidar, Dharwad, Kalaburgi, Ramanagara, and Vijayanagara received no allocations at all.

“The major portion of the grants were invested only in two districts- Mandya and Bengaluru Urban, with expenditures of 14 and 39 percent, respectively, we, in eight test-checked districts, observed idle or under-utilized infrastructure, poor maintenance, limited access to taluks, regional disparities, and issues such as incorrect site selection and repeated changes in the scope of works,” CAG pointed out in its report for the period 2019-2024.

Highlighting the discrepancy of the state sports policy 2018, which promised a sports hub and Olympic-standard swimming pool in 8 selected districts, neither one was to be found at the assigned sites.89 taluks were deprived of any sports infrastructure, thereby stacking the exposure of regional athletes.

The 233 projects worth ₹ 342.51 crore, which were promised, had 57 of them, worth ₹45.64 crore, still in progress.To make things worse, out of the 172 processed, there were 43 costing around ₹43.8 crore that were completed without the requisite technological standard compliance.