Kerala to lose central aid worth crores for urban development

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: AMRUT project in Kerala, affected by bad execution right from the beginning, is now dealing with unceremonious events like the chief secretary reportedly walking out of state high-powered steering committee (SHPSC) meetings and sudden resignation of the project manager and team leader of state mission management unit.
Sources say that project manager Shajan S resigned after he had some differences with mission director and additional chief secretary (LSGD) over some decisions that violated existing guidelines. The former team leader had earlier communicated his dissent over relaxations granted to consultancy firms that were picked for preparation of DPR and the recent move to appoint a deputy mission director, violating norms and project guidelines.

At the 21st SHPSC meeting on February 27, Shajan was reprimanded by a highly-placed LSGD official over various things, mainly for not notifying the urban local body (ULB) chairman about the meeting. Documents and communications among officials – accessed by TOI– showed that the notification was not sent to ULB representatives at the behest of another senior LSG official who had reportedly said `no need`. Shajan resigned soon after the meeting from which he was reportedly asked to leave.

It is also learnt that chief secretary Tom Jose also walked out of the committee meetings twice, openly expressing his displeasure over the conduct of affairs by the mission director.

The series of unpleasant events are happening at a time when Kerala has already been warned of its slow-paced implementation of AMRUT projects by the Centre. At least five officials – associated with mission management units at city and state levels (handling various aspects like finance, technical and project monitoring) – had quit or were forced to quit after they had expressed dissent over certain decisions made by LSGD’s top official.

In January 2019, additional secretary (ministry of housing and urban affairs) Shiv Das Meena had sent a letter to the additional chief secretary (LSGD) in Kerala pointing out the glaring lapses in implementation of project. Meena cited that Kerala had completed projects worth only Rs 23 crores, which was only 1% of approved state annual action plan at that time. The letter also warned that further delay in award of contracts may result in non-completion of projects, thus depriving the state of full central assistance. While it was proposed to give 2,18,023 number of sewerage connections, Kerala could only manage 18,000, the letter noted.

The state also faces the humiliating prospect of losing Centre’s fund owing to its uninspiring history in execution. In October 2018, the Centre had warned that if state failed to complete work awarding process by November 30, 2018 the amount will be transferred to other states. The state failed to meet the target and still has works worth over Rs 800 crore that need to be awarded.