Fast track projects announced in Delhi budget, says Centre

The BJP-led government at the Centre is pushing the system to fast-track all the infrastructure projects and schemes, especially those which featured in the Delhi budget and the ones announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The government wants to use the intervening period before the Election Commission’s model code of conduct kicks in so that the achievements can be used by the BJP to win over its vote base. The BJP government has asked bureaucrats to expedite projects, primarily of four departments—power, health, education and public welfare. While a few bureaucrats take the pre-election urgency as an opportunity to earn brownie points from the Centre, a few of them are under pressure to perform within the given deadlines.

‘The urgency of the government can be gauged from the fact that home minister Rajnath Singh has asked babus to send fortnightly reports to him and directly apprise him of the problems so that these works can be completed before the December deadline,’ said a senior BJP leader.

The top projects and schemes which the Centre wants to expedite or complete within one-and-a-half months are: enhancement of number of beds at Lok Nayak Hospital and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital; a 100-seat new medical college at Rohini; 110 new ambulances fitted with state-of-the-art equipment; School of Planning, Architecture and Design at a cost of Rs 285 crore in East Delhi by Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University; construction of new buildings for Deen Dayal Upadhyay College at a cost of Rs 151 crore at Dwarka and Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies at Rohini at an expenditure of Rs 132 crore; sewerage system in 95 unauthorised colonies; piped water at 50 unauthorised colonies; pucca parallel channel from Munak to Haiderpur to be made functional after resolving the issue with Haryana; inauguration of Rani Jhansi Marg flyover; redevelopment of Chandni Chowk; allotment of flats to Economically Weaker Section and pension to senior citizens; food schemes for Economically Weaker Sections; and cleanliness drive.

The Union Budget presented in July was full of sops for Delhi. From proposing new hostels for women to resolving water and power crisis, the budget for the current fiscal sanctioned projects and schemes worth Rs  36,776 crore. Now, the government wants to kick start a few of the projects before poll dates are announced. All departments have made their proposals before chief secretary DM Spolia to get clearances from finance.