Hisar projects crawl at snail’s pace: Sampat

HISAR: Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced a number of development projects for Hisar district. But information procured by former minister and Congress leader Sampat Singh under the Right to Information (RTI) Act reveals that things are moving at a snail’s pace, causing resentment among local residents.

Tribune News Service

Hisar, May 14

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced a number of development projects for Hisar district. But information procured by former minister and Congress leader Sampat Singh under the Right to Information (RTI) Act reveals that things are moving at a snail’s pace, causing resentment among local residents.

Sampat Singh, while addressing mediapersons here Monday, said that the Chief Minister had made 356 announcements for the district between December 29, 2014, and November 21, 2017. The government itself put the estimated cost of implementation of these announcements at Rs 1,714 crore. However, the RTI information revealed that just 7.5 per cent (Rs 130 crore) of the total estimated budget had been spent on these projects so far, he added.

The information gathered from the Chief Minister’s Office in March 2018 revealed that no money had been spent on 202 announcements though the government had prepared an estimate of Rs 1,082.24 crore for realisation of works, Sampat said.

He said the authorities have declared 17 announcements as completed even though no money had been spent on any of these projects. Another 70 announcements, which required Rs 1.07 crore lakh as per the government estimate, have been shown ‘completed’ by spending Rs 54.40 crore. While 22 works announced by the Chief Minister have been declared non-feasible and hence been dropped out of the list.

Sampat Singh said the Chief Minister had announced seven new women colleges in the district but only four were started and that too in rented accommodations. The colleges at Balsamand, Chaudhariwas and Adampur did not come up.

Similarly, of the 15 railway over-bridges and underpasses, five were declared non-feasible while other 10 projects were still hanging fire, he said.

“Most of the roads are in a dilapidated condition and against the estimate of Rs 498 crore for laying or repair of roads, only Rs 40 crore has been spent. The Chief Minister made 36 announcements related to the Irrigation Department that were set to be completed at a cost of Rs 187 crore. But only Rs 2.80 crore had been spent on the works of the department so far,” said the Congress leader.