Manmohan, Chidambaram unhappy over core sector project delays

With a number of initiatives in the infrastructure sector getting delayed...

With a number of initiatives in the infrastructure sector getting delayed, a meeting of the Committee on Infrastructure (CoI) under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held on Wednesday night turned out to be a stormy one. The meeting saw minister after minister and even the Prime Minister speaking out against the delay, bureaucratic red tape and differences that are holding back schemes and projects. The CoI was created to speed up infrastructure projects.

It is learnt that it was Finance Minister P Chidambaram who started off when he questioned the Planning Commission’s suggestion to refer the matter of “framing guidelines for ministries/PSUs who wanted to form joint ventures with private firms” to an inter-ministerial group (IMG). In the minister’s opinion, formation of IMGs led to delays and should be done away with.

Though this was rejected, it is learnt that Singh intervened at one stage and said the CoI was a platform under his chairmanship to discuss ideas for executing schemes and projects in the sector as well as to monitor milestones in implementation and not a policy-making body. It was pointed out that individual ministries should take decisions and if it was a matter of policy, the Cabinet would step in.

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This issue came up when the Planning Commission suggested some new measures for the already delayed toll policy for which a committee of secretaries was set up more than two years back.

It is learnt that the decision sought from the CoI was for a toll policy for two-lane highways that should follow the same pattern adopted for six-lane and four-lane highways. This proposal was also rejected and it was pointed out that the nodal ministry should be responsible for such decisions.

While the two proposals were outrightly rejected by the CoI, the PM came down strongly by asking why departments concerned were dragging their feet on implementing a policy for road safety — a policy measure that the Prime Minister himself suggested on November 23, 2005.

After Singh was informed that the expert committee submitted its report in February this year and now a draft Bill for the Cabinet was expected by only 2008 March-end, he pointed out that this approach was not acceptable when everyday there were blueline bus accidents in Delhi.