Lok Sabha Question No. 1429 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-27
Subject: Development of Aspirational Districts
Ministry: PLANNING
Asked by: Sunil Kumar Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PLANNING

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1429 TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.11.2019

## DEVELOPMENT OF ASPIRATIONAL DISTRICTS

## 1429. SHRI SUNIL KUMAR SINGH

Will the Minister of PLANNING be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  set  any  agenda  for  the  next  hundred  days  for development of 112 aspirational districts of the country;

- (b) if so, the details thereof;

- (c) whether  the  Government  has  made  any  arrangements  for  regular  review  of  the works undertaken so far in the said 112 aspirational districts;

- (d) if so, at which level the review is being conducted;

- (e) whether the Government is aware of the developmental work done under different schemes in the said 112 aspirational districts during the previous two years; and

- (f) if so, the details of the work done in the 112 districts of the country including Chatra, Latehar and Palamu districts?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

(RAO INDERJIT SINGH)

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(a) & (b) The ongoing Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) is an initiative to undertake continuous improvement across selected sectors viz. Health & Nutrition, School Education, Agriculture &  Water  Resources,  Skill Development  &  Financial  Inclusion and  Basic Infrastructure.  The  progress  is  mapped  every  month  by  capturing  improvement  in  key performance indicators in these sectors. A copy of list of indicators, catalogued in a Primer is  placed  at  http://championsofchange.gov.in/publications.  As  the  Programme  strives  for continuous improvement, no specific agenda for 100 days has been set for this initiative.

(c)&(d): A key strategy of the ADP is to monitor the progress in the Programme at different level  on  regular  basis.  As  such,  Government  of  India  has  appointed  Central  Prabhari Officers for each district whose function is to assist the district and State administration in transforming  these  districts  and  to  review  the  performance  on  continuous  basis.  The monthly  progress  in  selected  performance  indicators  are  captured  in  a  web  portal championsofchange.gov.in which is available in public domain. This facilitates the review by officials at different levels including District and State Government level and Government of  India.  In  addition,  an  Empowered  Committee  of  Secretaries  has  been  constituted  for ADP. The function of this Committee inter alia is to review progress in Aspirational districts on regular basis. Niti Aayog has also requested State Governments to monitor the progress in this Programme at appropriate level regularly.

(e) The on-going ADP is in the nature of an additional initiative under which convergence among the existing Schemes of Central and State Governments is being done. As such the Programme  does  not  replace  any  existing  Scheme  of  Central  or  State  Government  and hence is in the nature of additionality. Under the Programme, the District Administrations have  been  encouraged  to  draft  a  District  action  plan  by  taking  into  account  existing schemes of Central and State Government and implement the same subject to availability of resources under different on-going schemes.

(f) As stated in (c) & (d) above, progress of a district across different indicators under focus in  this  Programme  is  captured  regularly  on  championsofchange.gov.in.  On  the  basis  of information provided by the District Administration, Chatra has made an overall average progress  of  18%  [in  the  49  key  performance  indicators  taken  under  the  Programme pertaining  to  the  sectors  under  focus  as  mentioned  in  answer  (a)  &  (b)  above  in  this Programme since March 2018 till September 2019 while districts of Latehar and Palamu have made average progress of 31% and 32%, respectively.

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