A prophetic CAG report suppressed.

Over the past week, two of the most beautiful parts of our diverse country have faced devastating floods: Kerala on the southern coast and Uttarakhand in the northern hills. Lives have been lost in both disasters that cannot be delinked from environmental degradation, caused by unbridled construction and the specter of climate change that now threatens the entire world. Both Kerala and Uttarakhand had excessive torrential rains for this season. Both are also tourist hubs where resorts and private homes have been constructed without factoring in the impact on the environment and how such construction leads to landslides witnessed in both places.

What is shocking is that there have been warning signs. The Comptroller and Auditor General or CAG is one of the checks in the democratic system and an autonomous body like the Election Commission and the Union Public Service Commission. The CAG is the head of audit and accounts both at the state and central authority. Reports prepared by the CAG are meant to be tabled in the Parliament or state assemblies. 

What happened in the case of a CAG report prepared on Kerala suggests collusion of interests and subversion of the democratic system of checks and balances. A 2016 draft report of the CAG, Kerala, warns about unchecked construction leading to environment degradation. The report was strangely never tabled in the state assembly. The report names specific apartment buildings and leading hotel chains such as the Taj group and Sobha Developers violating environment norms in the ecologically sensitive state that has a delicate network of backwaters and the coast. 

The question is why was the CAG report not tabled in the assembly? 

The story has got scant coverage in the national media with the exception of a report in the Hindu Businessline shared here.

Interestingly, it in in Kerala too that we saw four luxury apartment buildings in Kochi demolished following a Supreme Court order last year. The court ruled that these waterfront structures violated the coastal regulation zones (CRZ) that prohibits construction a certain distance from the coast, river and backwaters. 

A CAG report that has not been tabled in Parliament and assemblies cannot be shared publicly. Yet sources reveal that 2016 report titled “Implementation of Environmental laws by Kerala State Pollution Control Board, Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority, State Environment Impact Assessment Authority with Respect to Apartments, Commercial complexes, Hotels, Hospitals and Industrial Units” calls out the lapses in not initiating action against those who violated environment norms between the years 2006 and 2013. 

In this instance an autonomous government institution such as CAG did do the job they were mandated to. But processes do not always reach their logical conclusion, possibly because there are big interests involved. The costs are eventually paid by the local people. It’s shocking and criminal negligence that suggests that property and business interests can destroy the most beautiful parts of the earth we have all inherited.