Taking a cue from Gujarat and Maharashtra, the AAP government is all set to launch the Chief Minister Urban Fellowship for the young graduates in the national capital. The AAP government will reportedly appoint 30 graduates to assist principal secretaries, secretaries and head of departments at policy level and for providing ground-level information and feedback to the government as part of the fellowship.
The proposal for the chief minister’s fellowship was discussed at a recent high-level meeting chaired by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. The proposal, considered the dream project of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, has been sent to home, finance and planning departments for their feedback.
As per the concept note, the AAP government will provide Rs1.25 lakh per month to each of the 30 graduates for a period of one year. The fellowship can be extended to another year depending on their performance and requirement of the AAP government. A highly-placed source said the minimum qualification required for the fellowship is graduation. But the candidates with specialised degrees would be given preference.
While both the Gujarat and Maharashtra governments have been paying Rs 20,000 every month under their respective fellowships, the AAP government plans to hike this amount six-fold so that it can attract talented people for the proposed scheme. A senior officer said once the fellowship is awarded to any person, he or she would be required to work as eyes and ears of the government at the grassroots level.
The majority of the AAP government’s schemes and programmes, either launched or in the pipeline, are people-centric. So the Kejriwal government’s main thrust is to ensure that it gets a regular feedback from the beneficiaries of such plans and schemes. If the need be, the ones doing the fellowship will also be bound to suggest ways and means for effective handling of each of the government’s policies and schemes.
A highly-placed source said that since the bureaucrats generally get feedback from officers, who themselves are responsible for implementing such schemes and policies, there was an urgent need to have a system in place where an independent person could hold regular interactions with beneficiaries of the government’s schemes. “The fellowship will help the government to create a two-way channel — one with the officers and the other with the general public. Thus, if any changes are to be effected in any policy or scheme, there will be objective and ground-based research readily available with the government.”
