Manmohan Singh kick-starts delivery monitoring unit

The Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh was today given an overview of the delivery monitoring unit (DMU), set up in the prime minister's office, for monitoring all the flagship programmes, new initiatives and 'iconic projects', of the UPA government.

In her presidential address on 4 June, Pratibha Patil stated that within 100 days a delivery monitoring unit would be set up. This unit was set up within 33 days on the 7 July.

At a 90-minute meeting, the prime minister acquainted himself with the delivery monitoring unit's mechanism. The DMU is designed to ensure monitoring by the prime minister's office on selected programmes. In the UPA-1 there were 101 items in the National Common Minimum Programme which were being ''monitored'' by the PMO. Now these have been reduced to a select menu of 18 items of high visibility and high impact projects.

The role of DMU is to ensure effective delivery through regular monitoring of outputs, fast-track implementation and trouble-shoot through periodic reviews. The basic design is that the prime minister will be kept informed of the progress on these select programmes on a quarterly basis.

Accordingly, the first report would be presented to the prime minister in early October. The primary objective is that this reporting be placed in the public domain so that it is available to the citizens as well as to the prime minister.

However, it was also stressed that the DMU would in no way dilute the role of the administrative ministries in these programmes. The inputs / reports would be used to facilitate speedy implementation of these programmes and, if necessary, help ensure course correction.