Vague, evasive on projects pending for 20 years, silent on timelines: Par panel slams rlys

Slamming the railway ministry for its "vague and evasive response" as regards pendency of its projects, a parliamentary panel has said the ministry has not provided any timeline for clearing the cases pending for over 20 years.

The Public Accounts Committee of the Lok Sabha, chaired by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, on Tuesday said the railway ministry had incurred an expenditure of Rs 5,001.87 crore over a period ranging from one year to over 20 years on 615 projects that remained unsanctioned as of March, 2013.

It raised questioned on the reasons behind such a long pendency.

"However, the action taken by the ministry is silent about enquiring into the reasons and fixing responsibility for such lapses.... The committee deplores the vague and evasive response given by the ministry to its recommendation that required specific tangible action.

"The ministry's reply is also silent on any specific timeline drawn up by itfor clearing the cases which are pending for more than 20 years," it said.

Not satisfied with the response of the ministry, the committee recommended penal measures against the officers concerned for not submitting completion reports of projects on time.

Stating that there was no valid justification for occurrence of irregularities like unsanctioned or excess expenditure, the committee said of the 674 completion reports, 409 were outstanding.

It reiterated that the ministry should regularise its expenditure and work out clear timelines to clear backlog and stressed on "timely sanctioning of expenditure in future".