TV Somanathan
NEW DELHI: While land acquisition, and forest and wildlife clearances are the main hurdles for delay in infrastructure projects that have been addressed by Pragati, the platform for large projects led by PM Modi, Cabinet secretary TV Somanathan made it clear Friday that development won’t be at the cost of democracy. Asked about amendments to the current policy, Somanathan said: “In a democracy we need to strike a balance… We want to implement projects with the consent of people and after public consultation.” The comment comes amid demands from a section of the business community to review the land acquisition policy to speed up the implementation of projects, with the corporate sector often citing the Chinese model of infrastructure creation. ‘No change in policy’While BJP govt did seek to amend land acquisition law in its first term, it left it to the states to offer a simpler regime. Responding to a question, cabinet secretary TV Somanathan said govt has no plans to change its land acquisition policy.
Removing hurdles
The data shared by Somananthan at a press conference showed 35% of 7,735 issues raised under multi-layer Pragati were related to land acquisition, followed by 20% dealing with wildlife and forest clearances. Manoj Govil, secretary coordination in the cabinet secretariat, said the average time taken for forest and wildlife clearance has come down from over 600 days to around 75 days as learnings from Pragati have been part of the administrative process.Of 382 projects reviewed by the PM in 50 meetings, almost two-thirds related to land and forest. Among the sectors, roads was on top (114 projects), followed by railways (109) and power (54). For railways and roads, at least half the issues are related to land acquisition.In a rare press conference, Somananthan said so far projects of Rs 85 lakh crore have been cleared by the PM-led panel as states and Centre have worked together to resolve the issues. Citing the example of Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link, the country’s highest-ranking civil servant said the project was approved in 1994 and by the time it reached Pragati in 2015, only 40% of the work had been done. It was finally commissioned last June after being monitored at the highest level. He said had the project not been taken up under Pragati, it would have been completed only by Jan 2038.He said by removing bottlenecks, Pragati had created a platform for higher capital expenditure by govt. “All states, irrespective of political dispensations, want to complete their projects and all chief secretaries have been very responsive in resolving issues,” he said.On impact of review of projects by PM under this initiative, Somanathan said on average, one issue was resolved every working day after review under Pragati.Besides projects, the platform is used to review 61 govt schemes such as One Nation, One Ration Card, PM Jan Aarogya Yojna, PM Awas Yojna, PM Swanidhi Yojna, Swachh Bharat Mission, Rera, and grievances across 36 sectors were taken up for review. Go to Source
