Southern States - Kerala   

MGP drew hardly any suggestions

By Roy Mathew

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM NOV. 25. The public discussion on Modernising Government Programme (MGP) has come a cropper.

One of the key changes effected to the MGP proposal for initiating action on various fronts was that it should be done after discussions. Accordingly, the Cabinet approved the proposals in principle in June and left it for public discussions.

An official release on Monday said that the detailed implementation plan, approved by the Cabinet, was drawn up considering the suggestions received during discussions. However, official sources privately admitted that hardly any suggestion had been received. Consequently, no changes were incorporated. Sources also claimed that this was because the original proposals were prepared in a sound manner.

The MGP office had printed 10,000 copies of the initiatives proposed under the Programme and distributed it among various groups. The material was also put on a Web site. Though some seminars and meetings were planned, all did not materialise.

Sources said that though the Kerala Government Officers' Association and the NGO Union had promised detailed suggestions, none came. There was also no response from others though the Opposition had raised much criticism against the ADB loan and the MGP.

However, general criticism of the ADB loan and MGP were aplenty. There were also a few papers on ADB loan from the Centre for Development Studies, criticising some of the aspects. A public affairs specialist, Asok R. Chandran, had published a detailed critique of MGP. However, the Government seemed not to have noticed it. His criticisms included opposition to the managers of the MGP themselves monitoring the outcome and the income-centric definition of poor proposed to be adopted for collecting user charges and providing benefits.

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