Centre asks Niti Aayog to fix up monthly targets for ministries for all major schemes

NEW DELHI: In what could be an unprecedented move by the Centre, the government will soon set monthly deadlines for its ministries to deliver on pet projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a move that would make implementing ministries accountable for all hits and misses.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has asked the government's premier think-tank Niti Aayog to fix up monthly targets for all major schemes under the infrastructure and social sectors for the current year and monitor them on a monthly basis using a dashboard based on commitments made by secretaries of all the ministries.

Reminding the Aayog of its mandate as stated in the Resolution of Cabinet Secretariat, the PMO said one of the objectives of the Aayog is "to actively monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and initiatives, including the identification of the needed resources so as to strengthen the probability of success and scope of delivery”.

“Niti Aayog is requested to undertake monthly monitoring of the implementation of the decisions taken, create a dashboard for constant monitoring, evaluation and review, and fix up outcome targets for all major schemes of infrastructure and social sectors for FY2016-17 and submit them to PMO by May 21, 2016,” PMO has said in a letter dated April 29, 2016 written to the Aayog.

Addressed to Aayog’s CEO Amitabh Kant, the letter, which has been accessed by ET, has clarified that the schemes “where true ‘outcome’ targets are not feasible, targets for outputs or intermediate outcomes may be fixed”.

This includes targets for rural and urban housing following the PM’s commitment of Housing for All by 2022, construction of toilets and achieving Swachh Bharat by 2019, rural roads, national highways, ports and airports, clean drinking water, power and renewable energy to name a few.

Besides, there will be targets set for infant mortality and maternal mortality under health sector as well as improvements in primary, secondary and higher education.