Govt lays down rules of Twenty Point Programme

New Delhi, Feb 15: Concerned at data showing that non-Congress-ruled states were doing better on the Twenty Point Programme parameter than those where Congress is in power, the UPA government today laid down the ground rules for state governments to improve their performance at the grassroot level.

Launched by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Twenty Point Programme (TPP) includes social welfare projects like poverty eradication, power to people, support to farmers, labour welfare, food security, housing for all, clean drinking water and health and education for all.

At a day-long conference of State Planning Secretaries here on the subject, the government issued instructions to state governments to have an effective monitoring system.

The government wanted the information flow from blocks to state governments and the Centre be speeded up.

The government spokesmen said that data received needs to be analysed and interpreted so that prompt intervention can take place at the right time.

The conference was inaugurated by Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation G K Vasan and presided over by Minster of State for Labour Oscar Fernandes.

Mr Fernandes had initiated the restructuring of the TPP, when he was Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

In his address, Mr Vasan said the TPP was a package of social sector schemes and programmes having an important bearing on the poor and under privileged.

He said the programme would go a long way to meet the goals and priorities envisaged in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the SAARC Social Charter.

Data by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme implementation shows that during the period April to November 2006, the non-UPA-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Orissa figured among the best ten performing states in terms of TPP parameters.

On the other hand, Congress-ruled states like Jammu and Kashmir and Assam were at the bottom of the table with rankings at 27 and 29 respectively among the 30-states being monitored under the programme.

The Left Ruled Kerala and West Bengal were at 18th and 19th position respectively. Maharashtra was also at the 19th place.

The programme was launched in 1975, but has been restructured thrice -- 1982, 1986 and 2006. While the TPP-86 had 119 items, the TPP-2006 has 66 items.

It was stated at the conference that this would mean focused and efficient monitoring of the 20 points relating to social welfare.

The spokesmen said for ensuring effective implementation of the TPP-2006, a four-tier monitoring mechanism will be put in place at the block, district, state and Central government level.

There was also a provision to conduct evaluation and impact assessment studies by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation at frequent intervals to evaluate the progress, performance and impact of TPP-2006.

Other instructions given by the Centre to state governments involved ensuring structures are put in place so that there is no delay in obtaining information and data once entered should not require any change. For this it is necessary to ensure that data collected at the lowest level is accurate, the government said.

It also instructed that there should be spot checks and inspections to validate the data. At the state government level the data should be analysed for identifying shortfalls, problem areas and providing feed back for corrective action.

States should set up structures so that reliable data is generated from the bottom up. For this, the state, district and block level committees should be put in place before April 1, 2007.

Involvement of the panchayats and local bodies for monitoring various schemes was also emphasised.

The government said monitoring agencies of all implementing departments needs to be strengthened at the district and village level with adequate staff and training.

UNI