The Planning Commission (PC) has been coming under intense pressure in recent months from a number of ministries and divisions to approve unimportant and politically-motivated development projects.
The PC has already approved a few such projects and is about to do the same in the case of some other projects, according to a PC official.
Last month the PC had to approve the Tk 4.38 billion Itna-Mithamoin-Ostogram road construction project of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in no time. It could not even scrutinise the project properly. There was massive pressure to endorse it, the official said.
The project is not included in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the current financial year (FY) 2014-15. There is also no allocation against it.
Another PC official said they were forced to approve the Narayanganj sadar upazila rural infrastructure project of the Local Government Engineering Division (LGED) although no such scheme was ever taken up at upazila level in the past.
"Being encouraged by the approval of above project, the LGED recently sent nearly 50-60 more such projects to the Local Government Ministry for getting approval of the ECNEC. Some members of parliament (MPs) have put pressure on the ministry for getting those projects approved," he said.
Another new project-Comilla district sadar (south) and Nangolkot upazila infrastructure development-has been approved by the ECNEC within the shortest period as a senior minister was lobbying for it, an official said.
A state minister recently put pressure on the Power Division and the Planning Commission to approve a fresh Tk 247.2 million Thanchi upazila electrification project.
The scheme is not even included in the ADP for FY 2014-15 as a fresh project.
"Although we know that this project is not feasible at this moment at the hilly upazila, we are processing it for approval due to pressure from the state minister concerned," said a Power Division official.
Another official said a powerful minister is putting pressure to approve the Airport bypass intersection-Lalbagh-Salutikar-Companyganj-Bholaganj road as a national highway project at a cost of Tk 4.47 billion although it would not be feasible to upgrade the project into a highway one.
Government officials said the Planning Commission (PC) cannot reject some development projects due to massive political pressure for getting those approved.
Development analysts have opposed the approval of politically- motivated project by the government and suggested proper scrutiny of all projects by the PC.
The Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) has done an inquiry into the feasibility of the proposed road construction project as questions were raised as to its importance.
Prof Shamsul Alam, member of the Planning Commission, said the PC is the third eye of the government to scrutinise viability and importance of development projects.
But sometimes the PC cannot function properly according to its rules of business when political pressure is there, he told the FE.
If the PC can play its due role, the public fund would be utilised properly which will ultimately benefit the country, Prof Alam said.
Development analyst Dr Ahsan H Mansur said getting a project approved under political pressure causes two types of problem.
Firstly, the country's policy document - the Five-Year Plan and the Perspective Plan-cannot be followed properly. This goes against public interest, he told the FE.
"Secondly, the politically-motivated projects are taken without proper feasibility studies. So most of the time, their fund mobilisation is affected," Dr Mansur said citing example of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway project and some power generation projects.
He suggested a strong and powerful Planning Commission for overseeing all the development projects of the government entities.
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