Government stung by 100 days' 'no show' of ministries

 
The PMO is said to be upset over the silence observed by the ministries on the progress of the government’s pro-poor schemes. In  a meeting held recently, PM’s Principal Secretary T K A Nair reviewed the progress of various social sector schemes.

It was attended by secretaries of rural development, housing, health and family welfare and human resource development ministries and Nair asked them to come out with a report card before the media once in every three months.

“From September 15 to 20, all these ministries will address press conferences just to highlight their achievement in the past 100 days,” sources in the PMO told Deccan Herald.

When the UPA II came to power at the Centre, PM had asked all ministers to announce their 100 days’ agenda.

However, none of the ministries, which deal with flagship schemes like National Rural Employee Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), National Rural Health Mission, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and other schemes, had come out with a report card.

The PMO has also taken a serious note of the poor performance of some of the welfare schemes such as NREGS and IAY.

“A major chunk of the planned fund from the Centre- a staggering 70 per cent of the 1.5 lakh crore –– is being spent only on rural development, education and health related welfare schemes. The PMO is keen that its ministers dealing with them come out with progress reports highlighting the achievements made, every three months,” said sources.