Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday slammed the “non-performing” officials in the national highways authority of India (NHAI) who have been either delaying projects or posing obstacles in works. He said such “non performing assets” should be shown the exit door.
Gadkari was speaking at the inauguration of the new NHAI building, which was built in nine years. He said this was an example of how officials have developed the habit of delaying works and even warned that he would have no other option than reviewing the performance of the chief general managers (CGM) and general managers (GMs).
“Non-performing assets (NPAs) not worth doing even vermiculture are preserved here and are being promoted. I feel ashamed at the attitude of such officials who are carrying such legacies of negativity and delaying things. They are delaying decisions and creating complications and at the helm, these are CGMs and GMs sitting for 12-13 years,” Gadkari said.
He said he was feeling “ashamed” at the inordinate delay by senior NHAI officials who were responsible for such a small work taking more than nine years while the same agency is building Delhi-Mumbai expressway with investment of Rs 1 lakh crore in three years.
Gadkari said the very process of recruitment in NHAI was faulty and the agency had been getting bad raw material.He also flagged how senior level officials often dont have details of the project
I will have no option else than assessing the performance of officials.I need to fix the issue and get rid of non-performing persons,he said.The minister as to why the authority was not able to retail engineers from IIT’s and other institutes.