Over 200 projects in rural areas cleared

NEWDELHI: The Delhi government on Thursday reviewed and cleared at least 200 projects in rural areas across 35 assembly constituencies following a meeting between development minister Gopal Rai, MLAS and officials representing various departments concerned.

Some of the projects cleared include construction of roads, cremation grounds and parks. Rai had called the meeting since nearly Rs 600 crore budget for village development lapsed last year as files remained stuck in red tape and due to poor coordination between various departments.

Officials who attended the meeting said 295 files were cleared which concerned a vari- ety of projects.

Rai said the files were pending for over one and a half years as officers were “deliberately” not clearing them.

The officers had cited staff crunch and not receiving the documents as some of the reasons for not clearing the projects, Rai said. “So today, this special campaign was organised where the officials from different departments and MLAS of 35 constituencies had been asked to come to Delhi Secretariat for a day with all their printers and laptops and clear pending files. Till now, the DMS/SDMS have cleared 160 files, while the flood and irrigation department has cleared 135 files,” Rai said as officers were busy clearing the files.

The exercise will be repeated on Friday for the other 35 assembly constituencies, Rai said.