While the political establishment counts the days to Saturday,in the first such exercise,the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) is putting the final touches on what it calls the action plan for whoever takes charge of the next government. This lists the unfinished agenda of the UPA government on infrastructure and development as well as key problem areas that require immediate attention. According to T K A Nair,the Prime Ministers Principal Secretary,the document will be ready before judgment day on May 16. The Prime Ministers idea was the next government,whichever it is,should be informed about the core issues which require urgent action as well as the institutional mechanisms which have been put in place but which still need action and implementation, he told The Indian Express. As first reported in this newspaper,Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar had last month directed all ministries and departments to prepare action plans for the new government. Detailed reports from a majority of ministries/departments have come in and important items on the lists are now being collated with a final brain-storming session scheduled in the PMO next week. Officials said the key priority subjects include: • Security and Defence: While some procurements for paramilitary forces were cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Friday,several other sensitive security-related procurements are still in the pipeline. Several major defence procurements are also still on the anvil. • Some components of the UPAs action plan for development of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East are still to be implemented. While funds for several infrastructure projects in the North-East have been allocated,actual construction is not complete. • Despite several rounds of high-level consultations,the agreement with Japan for the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and the industrial corridor project (to come up along the DFC) could only be inked in October 2008 with construction beginning in February. This is part of the unfinished agenda. • So is the National River Conservation scheme. The Ganga River Basin Authority,for instance,was notified in February but its agenda has to be firmed up and key appointments need to be made. • Similarly,officials said,the PMO would like to highlight the progress made and the unfinished task on various aspects of the Rural Health Mission as well as the need for establishment of educational institutions and schemes in the 90 minority concentration districts (MCDs) as outlined in the Sachar Committee report. • The unfinished task on climate change,on which the PMO had laid great emphasis,will also be put high on the priority list for the next govt.
