Our Ministers and their Performance Appraisal
Posted : October 26, 2004 at 6:31 am [IST]
‘India Today’ in its October25, 2004 issue has appraised the performance of 35 ministers of Dr. Man Mohan Singh Government. It appears the assessors are pretty tough in their ratings. They have placed only the finance Minister in 60-70 range with a score of 67 out of 100. Some 10 ministers are in 50-60, 12 in 40-50, and then10 including Home Minister Mr. Shiv Raj Patil are in 30-40 range. Two including Mr. Ola, the Labour Minister are in 20-30 range too. Will the appraisals be a help for Dr. Singh in his next cabinet reshuffle? Will the poorest performers be dropped?
The appraisals are necessary. However, the criteria are to be more clear, transparent, objective, and if possible measurable. I don’t know if it is possible, but for some of the ministry I can suggest some.
Let me take the minister responsible for rural road connectivity. Some 2, 40, 000 villages are still not connected by road. If the government wants to complete the task in next four years, it will mean 200 villages per day. Can a progress report on this aspect of development be the factor to judge the effectiveness of the minister? Similarly, the minister responsible for rural electrification must cover about 78 million households in four years. He must meet the target of providing electricity to about 62,500 households every day for a four year plan with 300 hundred working days in a year. Appraisal must be based on these parameters of performance. Similar measurable targets must be fixed for all ministries for evaluating the effectiveness of the minister concerned, instead of vague policy decisions.
Why can’t even Mr. Chidambaram be judged by the number of compliances of the promises he made in his budget, such as the scheme of renovation of water bodies, revigoration of ITIs and the national Manufacturing Competitiveness Council?
Mr. Kamal Nath must be judged by the export/import values of the trade and Mani Shankar Aiyar on basis of the production and price level of the petroleum products. The law minister must be evaluated on the reduction of cases in judiciary. He can facilitate the process in that direction. Mr. Baalu, the minister for road transport and highways, and shipping must ensure the reduction in delays at the port. He can also be judged by the kilometers of national highways constructed or upgraded to 4- and 6- lanes. So PR Das Munsi should also be judged by the km of irrigation canals built, Maran by the teledensity, Ramdoss by the number of hospital beds created and healthcare centres added and rural development minister by the number of water bodies renovated.
I request some of the eminent columnists of the business news magazines and newspaper to come out with suitable appraisal criteria to judge the ministers so that the people of the country can know what their ministers are doing their work effectively. Let it not be judged by money spent but by asset created and the number of customers- the people of India served. Let it not be judges by the financial closures but by the projects completed and commissioned in service of customers again. Let it not be judged by the credit provided but by the number of households helped. Let it not be judged by the amount spent on providing work to unemployed but by number of people employed.
Will you help me in refining the appraisal system?
- Indra
Category: Indian politics |
Leave a Comment