Green Book: Government fast-tracks projects worth Rs 1,566 crore

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance department has given 'green-channel clearance' to projects worth Rs 1,565.96 crore from 19 departments across eight sectors by including them in the government's Green Book concept. The amount is 74.6% of the total outlay of Rs 2,098.53 crore of these 19 departments. Inclusion of projects in the Green Book means that they can be started immediately without being placed before working groups or special working groups for clearance.


Projects are being implemented in the following sectors: agriculture and allied activities, rural development, cooperation, industry and minerals, transport and communication, scientific services and research, social services and general economic services.

"The department concerned can issue administrative sanctions from April 2 for the projects that have been included in the Green Book. This would save time - say two to three months - without going further into the usual sanctioning process," said principal secretary (finance) Manoj Joshi.

The projects submitted by 19 departments were cleared after a committee chaired by the finance secretary examined them. "Planning board finalized the plan document by mid-January and the submitted projects were scrutinized before the budget that was presented in February," he said.

Usually, projects that are below Rs 10 crore are forwarded to a working group chaired by the secretary of the department concerned and projects that have a budget of over Rs 10 crore are scrutinized by a special working group chaired by the finance secretary and secretary of the administrative department. The constitution and meeting of these working groups and special working groups is a time-consuming process, which cuts short the implementation time of each project.

Now, state government has advanced ratification process for state budget from May to March, thus giving more time to departments to implement budget proposals. But, top sources in the finance department pointed out the disadvantage in this exercise.

"The revenue and expenditure are estimates. For preparing the budget in February, we relied on the revenue data till January. A delayed budget in April would mean that the data on revenue would include the month of March, which will gives us more accurate figures," said a senior official.