DNA:
Ahmedabad: Monday, 19 January 2015.
Be it the
Ahmedabad Metro, land for Gujarat Bhavan in New Delhi or funds for projects,
Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel mostly bypasses the usual ministry route
to directly write to prime minister Narendra Modi to expedite approvals. And
the prime minister, it appears, obliges by taking a personal interest in
clearing projects for Gujarat, documents available with dna suggest.
Unlike other
chief ministers who communicate with the ministry concerned for their projects,
Patel prefers to deal directly with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to cut
the red tape.
In response
to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by dna, the urban development
ministry revealed that Patel wrote to PMO in June complaining that the ministry
had been idling on the Ahmedabad Metro project since April. The prime minister,
who was Gujarat chief minister before Patel, intervened and the project got a
final go-ahead in August.
Acquisition
of land for Gujarat Bhavan in the national capital was also made possible with
Modi's intervention. According to the documents, the PMO made a reference to
Patel's complaints and got land allotted to the state government in July this
year.
Patel and PMO
walked the same path to get funds for projects sanctioned under the Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
The RTI reply
from various departments within the ministry reveals that the Gujarat
government has made the most number of requests to the PMO.
The only
other chief minister to write to the prime minister has been former Tamil Nadu
chief minister J Jayalalithaa for construction of phase II of Chennai Metro.
"When it
comes to Gujarat, the PMO not just writes to the urban development ministry… an
official from PMO closely monitors issues pertaining to his home state,"
said a ministry official.
Clearly, the
prime minister's heart still beats for Gujarat.
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