Kerala Cabinet approves five administrative reforms to curb project delays, plug fund leakage
The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday (July 29, 2026) gave its approval for a five-point administrative reforms programme which includes the development of a Special Asset
The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday (July 29, 2026) gave its approval for a five-point administrative reforms programme which includes the development of a Special Asset Management Platform and a Plan Space 2.0 portal as well as amendment of “outdated, unnecessary and contradictory” laws. To be led the General Administration Department (GAD) as part of developing a digital administrative infrastructure, the programme is primarily designed to plug the leakage of money from the exchequer on account of the delays in project implementation, Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan said in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday at a post-Cabinet press briefing. The Special Asset Management Platform for Administration is meant as a registry of all government assets, including buildings, heritage structures, roads, bridges, dams, vehicles and machinery.
Plan space 2.0 is intended as a register of all capital projects approved by government departments. The projects will be geotagged, and listed in the GIS-based project register. The government intends to expand the existing Plan Space portal. Although the financial and physical progress of close to 1,900 projects are being tracked, they are not geotagged. The location of a project, coordinates, implementation agencies, approving agencies, funding sources and implementation stages can be tracked through this project register, the Chief Minister said. Integration of govt institutions Under the third point, the State government intends to integrate government institutions of a similar character. Towards this, the government aims to create a comprehensive registry of government institutions. There are 591 institutions under the government, with a salary outgo of approximately ₹19,000 crore.
“Some are still in operation although their intended objectives have been met,” he said. As part of the reforms programme, the Cabinet also cleared a proposal to review and amend “outdated, unnecessary and contradictory laws.” In the case of projects, they pose difficulties at the implementation stage, the Chief Minister said. As the fifth point in the reforms proposal, the government is planning a “process re-engineering programme” for ensuring ease of doing business. This involves simplification of procedures and the “modernisation” of Acts and Rules. Existing procedures linked to major departments, including Finance, Law, Tax, Revenue, Local Self-Government and Industries, often cause needless hassles. For the prioritisation of projects and inter-departmental coordination, the Cabinet has also approved the creation of an Empowered Committee of government secretaries.
The BriefWire