CM appoints central agency to evaluate 100-day action plan
Extract
from the article:
In a move meant to foster transparency and accountability within the
government, Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has appointed the
Quality Council of India (QCI) to independently evaluate the government's
ambitious 100-day action plan. The decision underscores an increasing trend of
engaging specialized external agencies to objectively assess political and
administrative promises made during governance cycles. The 100-day plan, which
outlines key deliverables and targets across various departments, is now
subject to rigorous scrutiny, with QCI’s mandate to track progress, pinpoint
bottlenecks, and provide actionable recommendations. This marks a notable shift
towards institutionalized performance evaluation, moving beyond
self-assessments by ministries.
The appointment also highlights the political dynamics
within Maharashtra’s Mahayuti coalition government, where public expectations
for swift and measurable governance have been mounting. By entrusting a reputed
independent body, the government seeks to bolster its credibility and assure
citizens that promises will translate into tangible outcomes. This development
is a response to the growing demand for governmental accountability, fuelled by
an increasingly aware electorate and media landscape. Furthermore, the move
aligns with national governance trends where data-driven, third-party evaluations
are becoming integral to democratic functioning and political nomination
strategies.
My
Take:
A. From
Sankalp to Sampanna
"Hey, look at what I thought of/suggested about this topic, 1 year ago. I
had predicted this! I had offered a solution for this." In the blog post
‘From Sankalp to Sampanna,’ I had stressed the absolute necessity of breaking
down grand government pledges into discrete, assignable tasks with one minister
held accountable per item. The notion was clear: implement a system where each
commitment is translated into tangible targets, monitored regularly through a
third-party agency—and not merely internally reviewed. What Maharashtra has
done here by appointing the QCI is essentially the formalization of this
concept at an institutional level. It validates the ideal that systemic
accountability needs external actors who are empowered with data access and
publishing rights, exactly as I had envisaged. Such mechanisms can be a vital
tool for ensuring political nomination dynamics are not ephemeral promises but
evolving commitments with built-in performance metrics.
Beyond the bureaucratic mechanics, this approach signals a
paradigm shift in political culture—where voters and civil society increasingly
demand empirical evidence of governance efficacy rather than rhetoric. It
fulfills my earlier assertion about embedding transparency in governance
workflows, allowing stakeholders beyond the corridors of power to weigh in
through measurable outcomes and public feedback. Maharashtra’s experiment with
the QCI as an evaluator will be a fascinating case study to see how independent
oversight can reshape political nomination dynamics into performance-based
leadership validation.
B. Mitra
Maharashtra: Institution for Governance Monitoring
"Hey, look at what I thought of/suggested about this topic, last year. I
had predicted this! I had offered a solution for this." In this blog, I
advocated the identification and empowerment of independent institutions akin
to ‘Mitra Maharashtra’ for monitoring actual governance achievements. I
emphasized that such institutions must have unfettered access to governmental
records to provide candid assessments, and crucially, that their
findings—comparing target versus actual—should be published autonomously,
without government filters. The appointment of the Quality Council of India
perfectly aligns with these precepts. It demonstrates an operationalization of
the theory I had laid out, where an agency with technical credibility executes
oversight with full autonomy, ensuring that action plans become measurable
outputs embedded within governance frameworks.
This move also resonates with my insistence that evaluation
agencies must not be subservient to political interests or partial to ruling
alignments; instead, they should act as an independent bulwark for citizens’
right to transparency. Furthermore, embedding such monitoring as an integral
component of ministry output budgets, as I had suggested, could potentially be
the next evolution of this application—translating assessments into resource
allocation models that incentivize performance. Maharashtra’s engagement of QCI
is a forward step in lending this concept practical credibility in real-world
governance.
Call
to Action:
To Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the Maharashtra cabinet, I commend this
pioneering initiative of appointing the Quality Council of India to objectively
evaluate your 100-day action plan. However, I urge you to institutionalize this
practice beyond a single term—make third-party evaluations a mandatory,
quarterly feature of all ministerial action plans. Empower these agencies with
unhindered access to government data and mandate timely publication of their
findings to the public domain, facilitating ongoing civic scrutiny.
Furthermore, consider linking these evaluations explicitly to ministerial
accountability frameworks, incentivizing exemplary performance and enabling
course corrections where necessary. Political nomination dynamics must evolve
from personality-centric emphases to systems-driven, performance-oriented
leadership endorsement. The citizens of Maharashtra deserve no less.
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
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