PANAJI
The Goa government through its Planning and Statistics Department on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nation First Policy Research Centre (NFPRC) to monitor and analyse delivery of key government initiatives and schemes over the next 15 months.
NFPRC is an initiative of RSS-affiliate Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini and has been working closely with several Central government departments and governments of States mostly ruled by the BJP.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, all his cabinet colleagues and top bureaucrats, including Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel attended the MoU signing event which was held at the Goa legislative assembly complex.
Under the arrangement, implementation of schemes and initiatives, including those promised in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto will be monitored by NFPRC, Sawant told the media.
Meanwhile, the details and the fine-print of the MoU, as to the extent of functioning and interface between bureaucrats and the NFPRC team in day-to-day executive decision-making were not available.
But the move to take the NGO on board was taken at the State cabinet meeting held on June 9. Its role is expected to be tracking of ongoing government projects for a term of 15 months and at a cost of Rs 29-lakh.
Sawant said, a ‘chintan baitak’ for ministers, secretaries and other top bureaucrats is planned to be held next month (September).
His government plans to establish a ‘Performance Management Unit’ which will monitor and analyse implementation of the key programmes and schemes and NFPRC will help in the endeavour, he added.
Sawant also said that NFPRC has experience of working with the Central government and various State governments and their experience will help Goa government enhance delivery of schemes.
“Various training programmes for bureaucrats from the Secretary level right down to that of junior scale officers, will be conducted through GIPARD (Goa Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development),” Sawant said.
He said, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently chaired a meeting of Chief Secretaries of all States where issues on how to resolve difficulties faced in delivery of government initiatives were discussed in sync with ‘Mission Karmayogi’.
“The Chief Secretary briefed us (all ministers) today of the discussions and decisions taken at that Chief Secretaries meeting chaired by the Prime Minister,” Sawant said.
Sawant also said, that at another meeting of Chief Ministers chaired by Modi, which he had attended. There were 27 issues identified pertaining to inter-departmental co-ordination at this meeting, he added.
