PM to meet top officials of infrastructure ministries today

Usually, the Planning Commission holds separate confabulation with department heads and targets are first set in the Commission by Member (Infrastructure) and later revised through a second round of meetings in Prime Minister’s Office.

The PM chairs the final meeting which is attended by both ministers and secretaries.

However, the letter from PMO on July 24 said that the PM would be chairing the Saturday meeting to “finalise the infrastructure targets for 2014-15” with a detailed presentation from secretary, Planning Commission.

And in attendance would be the secretaries of eight ministries, instead of last year’s six. Coal ministry has not been invited this year while the new invitees are telecom, new & renewable energy and petroleum ministries.

Last year, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finalised infrastructure target at Rs. 1.15 lakh crore for 2013-14 at a meeting attended by the finance minister, deputy chairman of Planning Commission and ministers and secretaries of power, coal, railways, roads, shipping and civil aviation.

The eight senior-most officials have been told come with a detailed list of the projects on the anvil and the costs associated with them.

Last year, approved projects covered two new international airports and 50 low cost small airports, two new ports and those in roads, railways, power and coal.

As reported by The Indian Express on July 22, Modi had unveiled a 17-point action plan for ministries. The government had also decided to ask secretaries of all ministries to share their five-year plans with the PMO instead of it being decided by the Planning Commission.

Govt removes Haldea from post of adviser

New Delhi: Gajendra Haldea, appointed by the UPA government in 2004 as adviser to the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, has been removed from his post.

On July 23, the Prime Minister’s Office sent a communiqué to the Commission saying that his services stood terminated with effect from July 22.

Haldea, the key bureaucrat behind infrastructure projects in the UPA government, was appointed adviser to Deputy Chairman and Principal Adviser (Infrastructure) in 2004.

During NDA’s first rule, he was chief adviser and head of the Centre for Infrastructure and Regulation at the National Council for Applied Economic Research from 2000 to 2003.

Haldea, a retired IAS officer of 1973 batch from Rajasthan cadre, has been accused by the road ministry officials of imposing roadblocks in infrastructure projects in the past, a charge he denies. Amitav Ranjan.