NEW DELHI: Sending a tough message to bureaucrats and engineers, who often raise needless objections or delay work, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has said such people better take voluntary retirement. The minister on Thursday said that he has asked his ministry to even come out with a proposal to give Rs 10 lakh extra to such employees for taking VRS.

“There is a tendency to stop or delay work, which goes against everyone and hampers development. It’s better that government personnel take VRS…Let them go rather than troubling us,” Gadkari said while addressing a conference on highway construction equipment. Large number of engineers and other officials from road ministry, NHAI and other affiliated agencies were present in the meeting.

This is not the first time when Gadkari has cracked the whip on a public platform. Soon after taking charge of the ministry, he had asked officials and engineers to stop the practice of making contractors visit them again and again. He had said he would prefer such officials go out of the system. Gadkari had also warned that strict action would be taken against all those who keep files with them for several days.

“Take decision, either approve or reject. But don’t sit on files,” he said on Thursday.

Gadkari said his ministry is creating a shelf of about 50,000km projects for which detailed study has been undertaken. “The focus is to finish environmental and forest clearances, land acquisition and shifting of utilities before projects are awarded. We are giving more financial power to regional offices to award consultancy works up to Rs 1,000 crore for preparing detailed project reports,” the minister said.

He asked senior officials to delegate more financial power to junior officials rather than asking all files to come to their table.