Centre seeks report from state over breach of AMRUT norms

Thiruvananthapuram: The Union ministry has sought a report from the state government on alleged violation of guidelines in the implementation of AMRUT (the central government’s urban transformation mission) project in the state.
The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) has sought the report in the wake of a series of articles by TOI about violation of guidelines by the mission directorate and LSGD in certain key decisions pertaining to project execution.
The office of Suneet Mehta, deputy secretary, AMRUT, confirmed that a report has been sought from the state government. Mehta said it was not right on the part of the state government to tweak the guidelines.
TOI has recently reported on the many irregularities plaguing the project.
Responding to the reports, officials with mission directorate have claimed that there was no violation of guidelines and when asked about previous decisions by a high-powered steering committee regarding appointment of deputy mission director and why mission didn’t act on it, they had said that they were unaware of such decisions.
LSGD issued an order sanctioning appointment of deputy mission director based on the high-powered committee’s decision and a letter from mission director on March 1 at a contract pay of Rs 75,000 per month. The order says that contract pay and other expenses of the officer so appointed can be met from the outstanding savings of KSUDP & JNNURM kept in the bank account of the mission director and that there was no violation of MoHUA guidelines in the matter.
While the mission directorate officials say it was the discretion of the state government to utilize the interest of KSUDP/JNNURM, questions are being raised over how it could be used to pay salary for an unauthorised post in AMRUT. It also needs to be noted that former staff of KSUDP are still awaiting salary dues and that projects under JNNURM had run into arbitration. Some of the civic bodies even had to tap plan fund to meet cost escalation for incomplete projects under JNNURM and the mission directorate had been silent on this savings which could be utilized to meet such needs. The mission directorate has rubbished such points as ‘lack of knowledge’.
The guidelines of AMRUT say that the number of human resources in state mission management unit shall be six and that they have to be selected from indicative list of professionals provided in comprehensive capacity-building programme toolkit, which doesn’t mention about a deputy mission director. The mission directorate officials also said that LSGD minister had cleared the appointment of deputy mission director.