Shimla, March 31 -- Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, tabled by chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu for the financial year 2024-25 pointed out that state's total debt and liabilities crossed the Rs.1 lakh crore mark for the first time. Emphasising on the urgent need for stronger monitoring systems, timely compliance, and reforms to ensure financial discipline and effective governance in the state, the report reveals that the overall liabilities of the state stood at Rs.1,04,410 crore as on March 31, 2025, a significant increase from Rs.96,522 crore in the previous financial year, underscoring a steep rise in the debt burden. It further reflected that public debt alone accounted for Rs.75,554 crore, up from Rs.70,369 crore a year earlier, reflecting the state's continued reliance on borrowings to sustain its finances. During 2024-25, the government raised Rs.26,622 crore through borrowings, while repayments stood at Rs.18,168 crore, resulting in a net addition to the debt stock. This trend seems closely linked to the widening fiscal imbalance, with the state recording a fiscal deficit of Rs.12,611 crore and a revenue deficit of Rs.6,804 crore, indicating that even routine expenditure is not completely supported by its income. Meanwhile, liabilities under the public account, including small savings, provident funds and deposits, also increased to Rs.28,851 crore from Rs.26,148 crore in the previous year, adding to the overall burden. The CAG report further highlights the state's continued dependence on central transfers, with Rs.10,681 crore coming as the share of central taxes and Rs.13,721 crore as grants from the Centre. Despite this support, the rising gap between receipts and expenditure and the growing reliance on borrowings point to structural challenges in future. The CAG highlights systemic lapses in education, mining, irrigation, disaster management, and forest administration, along with a massive backlog in audit compliance A key concern flagged in the report is the pendency of 207 Action Taken Notes (ATNs) on Public Accounts Committee recommendations, alongside an alarming 58,256 unresolved audit paragraphs, indicating delays in corrective action and weak administrative response mechanisms. In the education sector, Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) was found grappling with a 27-37% faculty shortage, adversely affecting teaching and research. The audit also revealed irregular appointments, with documents of 186 recruits not verified, and serious infrastructure gaps, including less than half of classrooms being ICT-enabled. Further, equipment worth Rs.1.99 crore has remained non-functional for years, while most ERP modules are yet to be operational despite significant expenditure. The mining sector came under sharp scrutiny, with over 40,000 cases of illegal mining detected in the past five years. The report also pointed to lapses in revenue collection leading to losses of around Rs.1.81 crore, along with instances of duplicate project funding and unrecovered advances. In the irrigation sector, the audit flagged poor planning and execution, noting that several projects were undertaken without proper surveys, resulting in incomplete or non-functional schemes and wasteful expenditure of public funds. Many projects failed to deliver intended benefits on the ground. In the forest department, discrepancies in assessment of compensatory afforestation (CAMPA) funds pointed to a potential shortrealisation of Rs.1.33 crore, raising concerns over transparency and valuation mechanisms....