Chandigarh, Feb. 21 -- Government functioning can sometimes leave one dumbfounded. In a glaring example of administrative oversight, Haryana's women and child development (WCD) department went ahead and purchased 4,000 electric ultraviolet water purifiers (EUWPs) for play schools without first ensuring that these institutions had basic infrastructure, such as water tanks and electricity connections, to make the units functional. A compliance audit by the comptroller and auditor general (CAG), tabled in the state assembly on Friday, revealed that the department procured the units in October 2021 at a rate of Rs.4,871 per unit from an Odisha-based firm. While the entire consignment was supplied by January 2022 and Rs.1.95 crore was paid by March 2023, the procurement-part of a 2020-21 budget announcement to upgrade 4,000 Anganwadi centres into play schools-has largely failed on the ground. As of November 2024, only 1,489 of the 4,000 EUWPs were functional. The remaining 2,511 units could not be made operational due to the non-availability of water tanks, water and electricity supply connections, or necessary fittings. Consequently, the one-year replacement guarantee on these units has already lapsed. "This clearly indicated that the EUWPs were procured by the department without ascertaining the ground reality as most of the play schools lacked requisite water tanks and water/electricity supply connections," the CAG report stated. The audit noted that the WCD department only began coordinating with the public health engineering and panchayati raj departments for tanks and motors in early 2024, years after the purifiers were delivered. By August 2025, field reports still showed 559 schools without water tanks and 465 without electricity. The CAG observed that the lack of planning rendered an expenditure of Rs.1.22 crore "unfruitful" and failed the objective of providing potable drinking water to pre-school children. While the WCD director claimed in June 2024 that the department had assumed utility connections would be ready within two years, the audit dismissed this, noting that the possibility of the uninstalled units degrading over time cannot be ruled out. The CAG has recommended that the state government consider fixing responsibility on the officers who initiated the procurement without verifying site readiness. It also urged the government to ensure that the remaining EUWPs are made functional in a time-bound manner....