Haldea withdraws RTI application

Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia seems to have prevailed upon his principal advisor...

Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia seems to have prevailed upon his principal advisor infrastructure Gajendra Haldea to withdraw an application the latter had filed earlier this month under the Right to Information Act seeking details of highway projects cleared by the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee under the finance ministry. Incidentally,Haldea himself is a member of the PPPAC that is chaired by the finance secretary.

Though Haldea declined to comment,government officials said the Plan panel continued to raise objections to decisions taken on award of road projects based on the recommendations of the B KChaturvedi committee appointed by the Prime Minister to fast-track road projects.

The committees report,approved by the Cabinet,suggested doing away with the cap on the number of bidders being shortlisted for PPP projects,providing the entire viability gap funding during construction phase itself rather than holding on to a portion for disbursal during the maintenance phase,amongst several other changes that were seen by many within the government and the industry as irritants in highways and road development.

Haldea,who had earlier demanded a copyright for the model concession agreement for highways,had filed an RTI application calling for the status of projects cleared by the PPPAC between January 2006 and January 2010. He had asked the road transport and highways ministry for information on bid date,number of bids received,viability gap funding and awardees,among other details.

Road minister Kamal Nath was not amused with a senior official filing an RTI application despite being a party to the decision-making process. He wrote to Ahluwalia stating such an act was inappropriate and improper in government functioning. Plan panel sources said Haldea had sought the information officially from Naths ministry and the NHAI,but was not obliged. In fact,consulting firms and road developers blame Haldea and the Plan panel for the slow progress in road building in the last couple of years.