Municipal Administration Minister Qamarul Islam, who is also the chairman of the Hyderabad Karnataka Region Development Board (HKRDB), levelled serious charges against senior officials in the Planning Department. He said they were creating hurdles and delaying the approval for development projects taken up by the HKRDB.
Mr. Qamarul blamed the officials of the Planning Department for the tardy progress in physical and financial targets of the HKRDB last year and during the current year. “The proposals for different development works worth around Rs. 100 crore are pending before the planning department. These proposals were pending despite getting cabinet clearance and technical approvals by the concerned departments,” he said. The Minister said that a proposal for taking up the construction of the Ring Road in Bidar at a cost of Rs. 45 crore approved by the HKRDB and submitted to the planning department in September last year was yet to be cleared. Similarly another proposal for widening of the road from Annapurna cross to the Kharge Petrol Bunk, to be taken up a t a cost of Rs. 9 crore, and another project costing Rs. 5 crore for taking up widening of another road in Kalaburagi were pending approval.
He said that senior officials in the department were sitting over these proposal seeking unnecessary explanations. He said to overcome the problem of inordinate delay in getting the approval from the Planning Department, the HKRDB had already resolved to request the government to enhance the financial powers of the Secretary of the HKRDB to sanction the project costing up to Rs. 5 crore. At present, the Secretary has powers to sanction projects costing Rs. 2 crore. Deputy Commissioners of the respective districts have powers to sanction projects costing Rs. 1 crore.
Mr. Islam said that all the projects costing more than Rs. 2 crore now has to go before the planning department for approval and this was causing avoidable delay. “The HKRDB should be given more financial powers to take up the development works after getting the administrative approval and technical approval from the concerned departments to speed up the development works and overcome the backwardness of the region”.
He said that the HKRDB had received a sum of Rs. 300 crore for the year 2014-15 and Rs. 250 crore so far during the current year.
