Mumbai:The Maharashtra District Good Governance Index (DGGI) 2024 report, which was released by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis with much fanfare on Thursday, is riddled with inaccurate data. As per the data, the total cultivated area under crop insurance in Rabi season is 4,30,067.06 hectares, which is 22 times more than the total cultivated area in the district. Similarly, in at least 10 other districts, the area under insurance is more than the cultivated area.
While releasing the report, Mr. Fadnavis said that it also reflects the scope of governance according to various sectoral benchmarks. However, a senior government officer said that the data given in the report, like the section about crop insurance and district revenue, does not give the real picture.
For example, the total cultivated area in the Rabi Season in Kolhapur district is only 18,813.0 hectares. It means that the crop Insurance cover was taken for the 2286 per cent of the total cultivated area. Other districts such as Jalana, Beed, Parbhani, Dharashiv, Washim, Akola, Yavatmal and Nanded also have area under the insurance cover more than 100 per cent of the total cultivated area.
Moreover, the report has used the data of revenue income from the fiscal year 2021-22, instead of last year. Interestingly, the Raigad district has surpassed Mumbai city and suburbs in revenue growth, the report says.
The DGGI is based on 161 benchmarks across 10 development sectors, namely Agriculture and Allied Sectors, Public Health, Public Infrastructure and Utilities, Economic Governance, Commerce and Industry, Social Development,Judiciary and Public Safety, Human Resource Development, Citizen Centric Governance and Environment.
“Flaws can be observed in the data as each sector in the DGGI report contains a 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial year's data, which can't reflect the actual position of 2023-24,” the officer said.
Even the figures revenue growth of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) did not match with the revenue growth shown in the year 2020-21 and 2021-22 of the DGGI 2024 report. “As per the report, Mumbai city’s revenue was shown Rs 25,956 crore for the year 2021-22, Mumbai suburb’s revenue was also shown the exact same. But the actual revenue of the BMC, which is the municipal body for both Mumbai city and suburbs, reported Rs 39,764.82 crore in the year 2021-22,” an official said.
A senior official from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES) told this newspaper that they have also raised a query with the Commissionerate of Agriculture, Pune how the area covered by the Crop Insurance is for more than the cultivated area. However, they have not received any response even after two weeks. Interestingly, the DES decided to publish the report with erroneous data.
“We have just uploaded the data as shared by the Commissionerate of Agriculture. Once we get the clarification from them, we will make a correction in it,” the senior official said.