Close watch: NITI Aayog to monitor key projects

The new panel will look into the implementation and evaluation of 12 pet projects of the PM, including Make in India, Swachh Bharat & Digital India.

Updated on: Feb 2, 2015, 01:10:15 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog will discuss implementation and evaluation framework of 12 pet projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi such as Make in India, Digital India and Swachh Bharat with state governments.

A-view-of-the-Yojana-Bhawan-in-which-the-Planning-Commision-was-located-in-New-Delhi-on-Thursday-The-restructured-body-will-now-be-known-as-the-NITI-Ayog-PTI-Photo

Modi had announced a slew of new initiatives in the eight months since he assumed office but the government has not finalised a system to monitor the implementation and evaluation of these programmes which cut across ministries.

“We have been told that the Prime Minister wants NITI Aayog to work on the monitoring aspect of these programmes and provide reports to the PMO on a regular basis,” a government official said.

The Modi government has disbanded an independent evaluation office (IEO) set up by the UPA and officials say a new evaluation unit with participation of the state governments will soon be set up by NITI Aayog. It goes with Modi’s concept of “cooperative federalism”.

Sources said the role of NITI Aayog in monitoring Modi’s projects would be high on the agenda in its first meeting on February 6, which will also witness Modi’s first visit to Yojana Bhawan after taking over as the PM.

Modi had visited the Bhawan for almost a decade as chief minister of Gujarat and in his last meeting in 2013 had presented his view on the changes needed in the erstwhile Planning Commission.

Other members of NITI Aayog finance minister Arun Jaitley, railways minister Suresh Prabhu and agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh apart from central ministers, who are special invitees, will also attend the meeting.

On February 8, the role of Niti Aayog will be discussed with chief ministers of all states and lieutenant governors of Union territories, where a discussion on Modi’s pet projects is likely to take place.

Sources said NITI Aayog officials were preparing a background note on these projects, the reforms agenda of the Centre, a revamped fund flow system to be introduced from next budget and state inputs for the Union budget will be circulated to the chief ministers early next week.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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