Kerala Cabinet Approves Five-Point Reform to Curb Project Delays and Fund Leakage
The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval for a five-point administrative reforms programme aimed at curbing project delays and preventing leakage of public funds. The reforms include the development of a Special Asset Management Platform and a Plan Space 2.0 portal, as well as the amendment of outdated, unnecessary, and contradictory laws.
Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan announced the decisions after a Cabinet meeting in Thiruvananthapuram. The reforms, led by the General Administration Department, are part of a broader effort to build a digital administrative infrastructure. The Special Asset Management Platform will serve as a registry for all government assets, including buildings, heritage structures, roads, bridges, dams, vehicles, and machinery. Plan Space 2.0 will list all capital projects approved by government departments, with geotagging and GIS-based tracking for financial and physical progress.
The third reform involves integrating government institutions of a similar nature. The government will create a comprehensive registry of its 591 institutions, which have an annual salary outlay of approximately ₹19,000 crore. Some institutions continue to operate even after achieving their intended objectives, leading to inefficiencies.
The fourth reform is a review and amendment of outdated, unnecessary, and contradictory laws that cause implementation difficulties for projects. The fifth reform introduces a process re-engineering programme to simplify procedures and modernise Acts and Rules, focusing on departments such as Finance, Law, Tax, Revenue, Local Self-Government, and Industries. To improve project prioritisation and inter-departmental coordination, the Cabinet also approved the creation of an Empowered Committee of government secretaries.
In other decisions, the Cabinet cleared the distribution of over six lakh free Onam food kits from August 10 to August 20. Each kit, priced at ₹854, will contain 16 essential items and be distributed to Antyodaya Anna Yojana ration card holders and inmates of welfare institutions.
The Cabinet also approved the appointment of K.K. Ramachandran as the Executive Vice-President of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE), and G. Saseendran as the Additional Director General of Prosecution (Vigilance).
