Independent evaluation needed for flagship programmes: PM

With government pumping in massive funds in education, health and rural employment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asked the plan panel and other ministries to set up a system for independent evaluation of these flagship programmes.     

The Centre has dramatically increased the funding for flagship programmes like Bharat Nirman, education and health. However, the performance evaluation has remained a missing link.     

"We need independent evaluations of these programmes based on data that is generated both by government and by others...     

"I am asking the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Department of Statistics to collectively work out details for setting up such an office," the prime minister said after inaugurating the National Conference of State Ministers In-charge of Statistics here.     

At present the evaluation function is done by several wings of the government and cannot be called independent, he said.     

Singh said the government is also considering data sharing to bring all non-strategic information in the public domain.     

"A pro-active policy of disclosure will be in keeping with the spirit of the Right to Information Act. Information collected at huge cost, with the tax payers' money, should be made available to the general public without their having to ask for it," he said.     

The UPA government has provided a whopping Rs 85,000 crore in the 2008-09 budget for programmes like Bharat Nirman, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-day Meal Scheme, National Rural Health Mission and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.