AMN /New Delhi
Expressing anguish over poor quality of telecom services in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today directed Secretaries and Chief Secretaries to fix accountability at all levels so that the standard and quality of these service be improved.
The Prime Minister also asked the various departments to complete the pending project to avoid cost overruns and ensure early benefit to people.
Chief Secretaries were directed to review the situation with regard to “Ease of Doing Business’’ too.
Mr Modi’s directives came during his seventeenth interaction through PRAGATI – the ICT-based, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation.
Most of the grievances in the telecom sector are related to issues of poor service quality, connectivity and non-functioning of landline connections.
During a review of the progress of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), the Prime Minister underlined the Union Government’s commitment to provide Housing for All by 2022. He urged the States to come up with strategies, time bound action plans and roadmap, and a monitoring mechanism to follow up on this goal. He called for the use of latest technology inputs to improve the pace and quality of work.
The Prime Minister urged all Secretaries of Government of India, and Chief Secretaries to review the situation with regard to “Ease of Doing Business.” Referring to the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” Report, he asked the officials to assess the progress based on the parameters used in this Report. He also asked senior officials in the Union Government to review the progress on a weekly basis.
The Prime Minister also reviewed the progress of vital infrastructure projects in the railway, road, port, power and natural gas sectors, spread over several states including Telangana, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana, Bihar, West Bengal, and Meghalaya. The Prime Minister reiterated the importance of completing projects in time, so that cost overruns could be avoided, and the benefits of projects could reach the people, as originally envisaged. Among the projects reviewed today are: Birnihat-Shillong Railway Line; Jogbani-Biratnagar (Nepal) Railway Line; Surat-Dahisar Highway; Gurgaon-Jaipur Highway; Chennai and Ennore Port connectivity project; Cochin Shipyard dry-dock construction; and the East Coast to West Coast Mallavaram-Bhopal-Bhilwara-Vijayapur Natural Gas Pipeline.