VIJAYAWADA: The State government on Tuesday cancelled as many as 3,543 road works worth Rs 1,031.17 crore under Panchayat Raj department. Principal Secretary (Panchayat Raj and Rural Development) Gopal Krishna Dwivedi released orders to this effect.
The government is of the view that a number of engineering works were sanctioned earlier in violation of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) norms, resulting in huge burden on the State exchequer. The government wants to review the ongoing projects on the ground that priorities had not been followed.
The YSRC government had decided to cancel those engineering works sanctioned before April 1, 2019, but not grounded. It also wants to review the projects which were grounded, but expenditure was less than 25 per cent of the total estimated value.
Going through the above norms, the Panchayat Raj Chief Engineer submitted a report stating that there are 3,543 works costing Rs 1,031.17 crore, which were sanctioned by the government under the PR Roads (Plain) Grant, under PR Roads (SCC) Grant and under PR Roads (STC) Grant before April 1, 2019 and requested the government to cancel the works as they were not grounded.
Earlier, the State government had cancelled as many as 650 works to the tune of Rs 350.3 crore and 813 works worth Rs 260 crore under the Panchayat Raj department.