The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has asked the Mizoram government to investigate into “wasteful expenditure” of Rs 3.84 crore under its two departments and take appropriate action against officials responsible for it.

The report, tabled recently in the Mizoram Assembly, revealed that the state government has incurred an infructuous expenditure to the tune of Rs 2.84 crore under the public works department (PWD) owing to inadequate planning and preparedness in taking up a project involving new technology.

The government also made wasteful expenditure of Rs 1 crore under the commerce and industry department for non-utilisation of a building constructed to be used as a food-testing laboratory, the report said.

According to the report, the Union ministry of rural development had approved the construction of a 10.59km road between Thingfal and Mamte villages in south Mizoram’s Lunglei district under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) scheme in May 2013 to provide all-weather access road to unconnected habitations.

The work inter alia included flexible pavement, rigid pavement, side drain and parapets among others.

The work for construction of 10.59km pavement was awarded to Biakliana, an Aizawl-based contractor at an estimate cost of Rs 6.31 crore.

The contractor commenced work in December 2013 and completed in 2017, two year later the deadline by incurring Rs 6.42 crore.

Although the original project involved the construction of a soil-stabilised base course technique, using liquid polymers, the contractor laid wearing course (bituminous layers) on the base course of 48.9km pavement (remaining 4.85km was cell filled concrete) before proper drying and the construction was done during rainy season.

Moreover, the maintenance of 4.89km of the constructed pavement using liquid polymers, as demanded by the original project, was absent.

As a result, the Thingfal-Mamte Road did not last even for a year, causing a wasteful expenditure of Rs 2.84 crore, the report added.

The report also said the Union ministry of commerce and industry approved setting up of a food-testing laboratory at Zokhawthar along the Mizoram-Myanmar border as proposed by the state government in 2010.

The laboratory’s location was later shifted to Thenzawl in Serchhip district and an expenditure of Rs 1 crore was incurred by the commerce and industries department (commerce wing) during 2010-11 for its establishment.

The government had again shifted the laboratory to the building of the Central Medical Store at Zemabawk here on the ground that its design and construction at Thenzawl was not suitable for installation of sophisticated machineries and there was a problem in deploying technical persons at Thenzawl.

The report added that the expenditure of Rs 1 crore, incurred over the laboratory’s construction at Thenzawl, was infructuous and it led to the creation of an asset that has been lying idle for over three years.