THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major achievement, the state government has issued administrative sanction for 63 pc of the projects in the annual plan in the first quarter of the fiscal.
In another first, 95 pc of projects by local self-government institutions have also got clearance from the district planning committees.
Sanction has also been given for 99 pc of RIDF (Rural Infrastructure Development Fund) projects to be submitted before NABARD. The regular project review meeting called by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday assessed the situation and found 63 pc of projects for 2017-18 have got AS before June 27. Usually only around 20 pc of projects in the annual plan get clearance by June. To overcome this scenario, the government initiated projects review meetings at regular intervals to address roadblocks without delay.
Review meet
A review meeting called by the Chief Minister in the first week of April decided to give AS to minimum 60 projects before June 30. With administrative sanction in place, departments will be able to immediately get into project execution. Now the projects should be completed in a time-bound manner, the Chief Minister told secretaries. He also directed the Chief Secretary to come up with a proposal to make project coordination more effective, within two weeks. Slight delays were noted in completing small works under PWD.
Taking this into account, the Chief Minister ordered to check whether the works can be carried out through any other alternative system.
Rew
The Planning Board has asked a five-member technical panel to review the ongoing projects. The committee is currently on a task to review the running of various projects, including long-drawn irrigation works. The panel has been asked to come up with a guideline in this regard by September 2017.
The Chief Minister directed secretaries to identity three major people-friendly schemes which can be completed in a time-bound manner. The progress of these schemes should be reported in the next review meeting in September.
It was for the first time the Chief Minister initiated the action plan for direct review of projects every three months so as to ensure speedy completion.