The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of the government of India has said criticised the Water Resources department for not refining and speeding up the procedure for prioritisation and selection of irrigation projects for granting loans under the government's Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).

The department was able to complete only 41 out of 265 projects by March 2012 and created irrigation potential for 1,106 hectares in various parts of the country. The department also decided to drop 83 projects at some stages of implementation as the projects were selected without comprehensive study of technical, economic, financial, organisational aspects and the reediness for the implementation.

The new CAG report on economic sector said that the remaining 141 projects are currently in various stages of implementation and are being carried out with an investment of Rs. 241.32 crore. The government had targeted additional irrigation potential for over 45,000 hectares by March 2012. However, the department was able to achieve a meagre2 per cent through the projects that were financed from RIDF loan between 2007 and 2012.

The new CAG report said, "As selection of the projects was done without following definite criteria, at least 196 projects sanctioned with total cost of `419.12 cr were either dropped or not commenced due to delay in land acquisition and obtaining forest clearance, non-finalisation of drawings/designs/ayacut planning in distribution system, lack of administrative approval and non-feasibility."