The country’s biggest bureaucrat, Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan (IAS:1987:TN), shared his views on what is coming in the way of implementing the infrastructure projects in this country. The Cabinet Secretary disclosed that so far projects of Rs 85 lakh crore have been cleared by the PM-led panel as states and the Centre have worked together to resolve the issues facing their implementation.
While addressing a rare press conference on Friday, Somanathan cited land acquisition and forest and wildlife clearances as the main hurdles for delay in the implementation of the infrastructure projects. He also opined that development won’t take place at the cost of democracy.
His comment has come at a time when a section of the business community is demanding a review of the land acquisition policy to speed up the implementation of projects, with a section of the corporate sector often citing the Chinese model of infrastructure creation to be followed in India.
But the Cabinet Secretary ruled out any such plans to change the land acquisition policy.
Somananthan shared the data at the press conference showing 35% of 7,735 issues raised under multi-layer Pragati were related to land acquisition, followed by 20% dealing with wildlife and forest clearances.
He said of 382 projects reviewed by PM Narendra Modi in 50 meetings, almost two-thirds related to land and forest. Among the sectors, roads were on top (114 projects), followed by railways (109) and power (54). He said at least half the issues are related to land acquisition for railways and roads.
Speaking on the impact of the review of projects by PM Modi under this initiative, Somanathan said on average, one issue was resolved every working day after review under Pragati.
Manoj Govil (IAS:1991:MP), who is Secretary (coordination) in the Cabinet Secretariat, pointed out that the average time taken for forest and wildlife clearance has come down from over 600 days to around 75 days.
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