Fadnavis govt insists on KRAs for Maharashtra babus

MUMBAI: In a first, the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra has borrowed HR practices from the corporate world to ensure that top babus complete their projects on time. The CM is insisting on achieving targets and Key Result Areas (KRAs) to assess the performance of state bureaucrats, just as it is done in the private sector.
The bureaucrats have been given a set of targets to achieve in a year.Fadnavis, keen to show that he means business, has told the bureaucrats that if targets are not met on time, it would reflect adversely on their Annual Confidential Records (ACRs) that determine their promotion and career progression.“We have a lot of projects and it's important that they are implemented in a time-bound manner. It will benefit more people if projects are completed within deadline, which is why we have set KRAs," said Fadnavis.
The KRAs -which ET had accessed -were finalised after the CM had one-on-one meetings with the bureaucrats concerned, and will have another round of meetings with secretaries on May 27 to fine-tune the KRAs.
State government officials also said that besides a negative noting on their report cards, the government is planning to shunt erring bureaucrats out from their current posts if they failed badly to meet their targets.
Fadnavis confirmed the punitive measures with an emphatic “absolutely". When pointed out that a few bureaucrats were unhappy with the KRAs, the CM said, “We are not here to see whether someone's happy or not, we are here to get things done. The government's job is to make sure that people's work gets done and KRAs are meant to ensure that."
The chief minister, however, said that the bureaucrats have received KRAs with enthusiasm, and some even suggested that the current targets can easily be met. Some forthcoming bureaucrats said there was scope to make them more stringent.
The state government has set different targets for different departments. The housing department, for instance, has been set a target of building 2 lakh affordable houses every year in Mumbai. The home department has been given a task of taking Maharashtra's dismal conviction rate from about 13% to 50%.
The energy secretary was asked to increase the Plant Load Factor of power plants from 60% to 70%.The irrigation department has to make a big effort to complete the pending irrigation projects, and has to complete at least 75% of the work at various project sites.