Rs 1400-cr CM Development Fund to augment public facilities gets Delhi Cabinet nod

New Delhi, May 15 (PTI) The Delhi Cabinet has approved the setting up a Chief Minister Development Fund (CMDF) with a Rs 1,400-crore corpus for 26 FY to boost the city's civic infrastructure and public facilities, officials said on Thursday.
    The maximum cost of a project approved under it would be around Rs 10 crore. However, the chief minister can raise the ceiling in exception circumstances, according to officials.
    A senior government official asserted the initiative would pave a way of supplementing Delhi's infrastructure needs and to fill the critical gaps in the existing development frameworks by injecting a flexible mechanism for local-level development.
    The planning department has issued detailed guidelines for CM Development Fund utilisation.
    Development works for local needs, and community projects such as dhobighat construction, renovation and ad-ons in schools, hospitals, toilet blocks in slums, public parks, and sports complexes that are not covered by largescale infrastructure project will be prioritised, according to an official document.
    Other such works and bulding and renovating public facilities such as water coolers, community halls, street lights, will also be funded from the corpus. It will also fund civic infrastructure projects like drains, sewage treatment plants, roads, foothpaths, cycle tracks.
    The departments concerned will prepare proposals based on the needs and directions from the chief minister. The planning department after due scrutiny of all such proposals submit them for the Chief Minister's approval, the document said.
    After the CM's approval, the planning department will ask departments concerned to prepare estimates and engage executing agency. Following the scrutiny of the estimates, the Planning department will issue administrative approval and expenditure sanction to the proposed development projects.
    The planning department will release funds to the departments concerned or executing agency as per the availability of funds in four installments of 10 percent, 30 percent, 30 percent, 30 percent based on the progress of the works, the document said.
    A third-party evaluation of all projects costing Rs 10 crore or more will also he carried out by the department concerned and a maximum one percent project cost could be reserved for it.
    The project administering departments will ensure that there is a dedicated budget for maintenance and operations of the projects that will not be provided by the CMDF.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)