WITH the Congress party working on early polls in Haryana, as first reported by The Indian Express, the Prime Minister’s Office has been deployed to push big-ticket projects and programmes in the state before the model code of conduct kicks in.

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister will meet top bureaucrats of economic ministries and the Planning Commission tomorrow to review long-pending proposals of the state government, and remove roadblocks so that the schemes can be publicized before the poll dates are announced, likely on August 16.

On the agenda are a greenfield international airport at Jhajjar, natural gas for a 1,500-MW power project at Faridabad and a 2,100-MW captive power plant at Reliance Industries Ltd’s special economic zone at Jhajjar, building a second link from river Ravi to river Beas, expediting the Delhi-Faridabad Metro rail with full funding from the Centre, special grant of Rs 100 crore to Haryana Agricultural University and modification in the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Programme to include villages with 25 people instead of the stipulated 100.

The call for the meeting in the PMO was given on July 23, four days after the Congress constituted a high-level committee headed by state in-charge Prithviraj Chavan, who is also Minister of State in the PMO, to coordinate poll related work in Haryana.

It’s not just the timing of the PMO review that demonstrates the party’s intention but also the level at which the review is being taken. Usually, the Cabinet Secretary reviews the progress of projects in states.