'Ministries should limit role to policy making'

NEW DELHI: While acknowledging the "general unhappiness with governance and public service delivery", the Planning Commission has suggested a recast of the government set-up. It has suggested that government departments limit their role to policy making and separate, professionally-managed delivery organizations be set up to meet the expectations of the people.

The changes suggested are not confined to the establishment in Delhi alone. A soon-to-be-released note on the 12th Five-Year Plan has also pointed out that the district collector was potentially the only possible focus of convergence for various government agencies administering a plethora of schemes but was actually far too overburdened.

If the Planning Commission's views are taken on board by the government, several government departments ranging from rural development to revenue would only be involved with policy formulation and the schemes would be administered by a new set of organizations, something that will face stiff opposition from the bureaucracy and the political class.

The plan panel also wants the evaluation process to be delinked from government departments.

Even in the policy formulation process, the paper called for a change in approach by roping in civil society. "The involvement of civil society organizations in programme design through wide consultations should become a norm," it said.

Poor governance standards, which have come in for sharp criticism in recent months, have emerged as a key focus area in the formulation of the 12th Plan. Along with empowerment, it has been culled out into a separate section and based on the feedback received during the consultation process, the plan panel has said that schemes are often formulated without understanding desires and limitations of the beneficiaries, especially the disadvantaged.

Similarly, it said the system for informing the people about their rights and entitlements were poor and often exclusionary. "The service delivery personnel, apart from issues of corruption, are inadequately informed of their duties and responsibilities and take little pride in their work," it added.

Further, it said the complaint redressal system needed to be upgraded and made independent of the delivery mechanism as the current mechanism was not responsive.