Modi effect: Project Monitoring Group chant delivery mantra

PMG was instituted during Congress-led UPA govt to accelerate pending industrial projects worth up to Rs 1,000 cr

With Narendra Modi taking over as the Prime Minister, various central agencies have been signaled to focus more on the delivery aspect of governance.

The specialised Project Monitoring Group (PMG), instituted last year during the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to accelerate pending industrial projects worth up to Rs 1,000 crore, has been asked to attune its working to include both clearances and execution of projects.

Union additional secretary and central PMG Chairman Anil Swarup said,“The message from the new government is to move beyond mere clearances of underlying projects to the execution part as well.”

Ever since PMG came into existence, it had dealt with about 437 projects.

Meanwhile, Swarup met state chief secretary Alok Ranjan and later interacted with local industrialists at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), where he launched the PMG web portal for UP.

The portal is aimed at facilitating faster clearances of industrial projects through web to ensure more transparency and time-bound action.

Swarup said the portal would enable tracking applications at each stage to drive in more transparency and speed in the processes.

He informed that from July, the forest department clearances involving both the Centre and the states would be done electronically.

“We are happy that the ministry of mines is ready for adopting the digitisation process,” he informed.

UP had about 21 projects pending with PMG, of which 15 had already been resolved.

So far, 14 states have set up PMGs to drive on the information technology highway and boost industrialisation.