Selection of agency conducting e-auction for Phase III of FM radio and the creation of Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board are some of the priority areas that the I&B Ministry will try to achieve within fixed time-limits for improving its performance in the 12th Plan period.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has come out with a comprehensive document 'Compendium of important action points' detailing its action plan for 2012-17 period.
While the agency to conduct e-auction for Phase III of FM radio will be selected by June 30, the notification for Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board will be issued by November.
Similarly, the renovation work at the Siri Fort stadium would begin by October and the Central Board of Film Certification will open a regional office in Patna by December this year.
Official sources said that the need to establish such a compendium was felt after the ministry reviewed its performance in utilising the allotted funds in the previous years.
They said that while the ministry had utilised a lowly 66 per cent of allotted funds in 2008-09, it improved to 93 per cent in fiscals 2009-10 and 2010-11.
In the last financial year 2011-12, the I&B ministry managed to utilise 96.96 per cent of its alloted funds.
Of the Rs 786.72 crore allotted in the revised budget, the ministry spent Rs 762.83 crore (Rs 7.62 billion) in 2011-12.
The Broadcast wing of the ministry utilised over 99 per cent of the amount sanctioned under the revised estimates.
"During reviews of the ministry's functioning, it was felt that monitoring the functioning of departments was the key factor which contributed
Consequently, the ministry has systematised functioning by giving time bound tasks to all departments till December 2012, officials said.
Well-placed sources said that it had been decided at the highest level within the I&B ministry that the timelines that have been mentioned for each of the Information, Broadcasting and the Films wings will have to be strictly adhered to.
In the document that the ministry has prepared, while some deadlines lay an exact deadline, others mention a period of one week or more.
While the completion of work for the National Press Centre would be finished by the ministry by August 31, the workshops for Hindi language may be conducted at the end of September.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni had also been keen the ministry work in a result oriented manner following which the ministry had taken several steps to streamline processes, sources said.
Officials said that the ministry had already set up an Inter-media coordination committee of its own departments to ensure a convergence of activities. Steps were also being taken to reinvigorate Inter media publicity co-ordination committees, which function at the state level.
To effect better monitoring and implementation, the ministry has also rationalised the number of schemes it would implement in the 12 Plan from 65 to 25, officials said.
Another decisions that the ministry has taken to improve performance is that all necessary approvals for new schemes would be taken in the first quarter of every financial year during the 12th Plan, so that there is ample time for implementation, sources said.
