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PM Modi's flagship programmes starved for cash: Report
A report from the parliamentary standing committee on urban development has raised questions regarding the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship initiatives.
A report from the parliamentary standing committee on urban development has raised questions regarding the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship initiatives.
A Bloomberg report cites the Parliamentary committee finding indicating that the six top infrastructure initiatives have barely spent any of the money allocated to them and the on-the-ground implementation has been sluggish due to lack of fund spending.
Although the government insists the figures are wrong and has denied the report, which noted that only 21 percent or 1.2 billion dollars have been spent so far of $5.6 billion allocated for the projects.
Highlighting one of the most high profile national programs - ‘Smart Cities’ program, the report stated that the government has utilised 1.8 percent of the total funds allocated for it indicating only $28 million has been spent out of $1.5 billion.
Coming to the affordable housing programme and projects related to drainage and sewage facilities - less than 30 percent of the total available funds have been used.
The committee highlighted that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs was unable to make realistic projects and lacked proper planning besides lack of proper funding or fund utilisation.
Denying the findings of the committee, Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry spokesperson Rajeev Jain explained that the funds are considered officially spend when all the work is completed adding that the project managers have sent the ‘utilisation certificates’ which indicates the evidence of the cash used.
Mentioning that the payment is released to the company in charge of the project only when the entire work is completed, he noted that the projects worth $3.7 billion have been completed or started.
Meanwhile, Pinaki Misra, who leads the urban affairs standing committee blamed the Centre for the delay in project completion adding that the Centre does not have funds, hence are not releasing them.
The parliamentary committee report warns that the completion of these ‘well-meaning’ projects would ‘remain a distant dream’ if they receive such meagre funds.
