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Patna,(BiharTimes): Conceding that there was slow progress in the implementation of the JNNURM projects till 2011 the Bihar government on Thursday contested the answer given by the Union Minister of State for Urban Development Deepa Das Munshi in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the state has not sent any utilization certificate for the works done under centrally-sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
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“We have sent the utilisation certificate of most schemes under JNNURM to the urban development ministry in the first week of October. We are waiting for the release of the second instalment of funds,” state urban development department secretary S Siddharth was quoted in The Telegraph as saying.
However, he admitted to slow progress in the implementation of the JNNURM projects till 2011. “Though implementation of the scheme was slow, it has been expedited over the last year.”
He said contracts of many major projects were awarded in October 2011 and signed in December. The work began in the first quarter of 2012. As far as the utilisation certificates are concerned, it was the first thing that I took up after taking charge as the secretary of this department in August,” Siddharth said.
Only on Wednesday Das Munshi had told the Lok Sabha in reply to a question from RJD MP Jagadanand Singh that “money was given for eight projects in the state but utilisation certificates of none has been received so far”.
The daily quoting sources in the urban development department attributed the slow progress to land acquisition and red-tapism.
“This was the first time that big infrastructure development projects requiring land were being executed in the state. For instance, 72 plots measuring 40mx40m were required in the capital to build overhead water tanks under the Patna Water Supply Project. It took several months to acquire all the plots. A huge work was undertaken in 2010-11 to identify and acquire land for most of the pending projects,” an officer said.
“Red-tapism was another factor that stalled various projects in the past few years. The projects used to get stuck at various levels in the department for several months before reaching the ministry. The detailed project report of most projects had to be revised because the schemes had become outdated by 2011-12 when steps were finally being taken for their execution. This took another couple of months,” the officer added.
Patna and Bodh Gaya are the two cities in the state identified as “mission cities” under JNNURM. They attract most urban infrastructure development projects under urban infrastructure and governance (UIG) and basic services for urban poor sub-missions.
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