1 year extension for Project Clearance Committee

Kolkata: With directions given by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to ensure proper utilisation of funds, the state government has decided to extend the tenure of the Project Clearance Committee by a year.

The said committee was set up to go through the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of projects taken up by all departments. There are senior officials of the state Finance department and the state Public Works Department (PWD) in the committee. Projects only get implemented if the committee gives its clearance after going through all aspects of the same.

The committee is headed by Srikumar Bhattacharya, who was earlier the Engineer-in-Chief of the state Public Works Department. He is the chairman of the committee.

The financial aspects of all the projects will also be looked into by the committee before giving the go-ahead. Steps will be taken accordingly if it becomes possible to bring down the cost of the proposed projects. Measures have been taken to ensure timely implementation of work and at the same time to rationalise the expenses of the state government. It needs a mention that this comes at a time when the capital expenditure of the state has gone up 7.2 times from Rs 2,225 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 18,170 crore in 2020-21. At the same time, expenditure in the social sector increased 10.11 times between 2010-11 and 2020-21. Mpost