-The Economic Times The three reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on coal, ultra-mega power projects and airports, playing out in the public discourse as major indictments of corruption and of the government, serve only to spread confusion and convert infrastructure building into a political battleground. The reports are ill-informed by commercial logic, sometimes deficient in factual detail. However, since they bear the authority of a constitutional body, the...

-The Times of India Expectedly, CAG's reports on coal, power and Delhi airport have raised a storm. Yes, one takeaway is the need for transparency in resource disbursal and use, be it minerals or land. But if CAG - whose job is to keep accounts - habitually hypothesises about presumptive revenue loss owing ostensibly to absence of this or that policy in the past, where will it end? Its coal audit...

-The Asian Age Stating that many serious irregularities have come to light in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in some districts of Karnataka , Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday took the Karnataka government to task for failing to take action. Speaking to media persons after visiting family toilets built under the Parishud Grama Yojana by Infosys Foundation at Gamvar village in Jewargi...

-The Indian Express Three new reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India increased the heat on the embattled government on Friday. The statutory auditor’s report on coal block allocations, implementation of public-private partnership at the Delhi International Airport and the award of ultra mega power projects (UMPP), tabled in Parliament, accused the government of indulging in favouritism, irregularities in bidding processes, and causing massive losses to the exchequer. The...

-The Times of India Pointing out that the government extended windfall gains of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to private players by distributing coal blocks without bidding over years, the CAG has said, "A part of this financial gain could have accrued to the national exchequer by operationalizing the decision taken years earlier to introduce competitive bidding for allocation of coal blocks. Therefore, audit is of strong opinion that there is a...