CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION - Government of Himachal Pradesh

DESHP
Himachal Pradesh State Strategic Statistical Plan 38
originating from the field functionaries of the line departments are saddled with other
responsibilities and their statistical functions receive very low priority.
3.2.4 The consequences of such weak lateral coordination are often significant
duplication of efforts and lack of integration between different data sources. There is
also no mechanism to ensure that the primary data collectors adhere to the norms and
standards laid down by their controlling departments, which adversely affects data
quality.
3.2.5 The steps taken in terms of improvement of lateral coordination in statistical
matters at the centre between the CSO and the other Government of India Ministries/
Departments are in accordance with “Allocation of Business Rules” which may also be
adapted as a model for improvement of lateral co-ordination at the State/UT level
between the State DESs and the other line ministries/departments of the States/UTs. For
this purpose, the rank of the Heads of DES needs to be elevated within the administrative
structure of the states and preferably be equivalent to the rank of Statistical
Advisors/Deputy Director General (DDG) of the Indian Statistical Service (ISS) in the
MOSPI of the Central Government. Moreover, the DES needs to be declared as nodal
statistical agency, if not already done, within the state as recommended by the NSC
(2001). This will empower the DES in all Statistical matters in the States/UTs and the
coordination functions get widened to cover entire State Statistical system. There is an
imperative and urgent need for enhancing the usefulness of the SSS to the State
Government. The SSS will have to change the way in which the production of statistics
is done using the ‘current fixed-product’ approach. This in-turn requires sharing of data
maintained by one department with other departments through agreed upon protocols,
central storehouse of unit level data of all departments and identification of essential
common data elements in all data collection forms used by various administrative
agencies.
3.2.6 The World Bank is assisting the country in the formulation and effective
implementation of the India Statistical Strengthening Project (ISSP). The MoS&PI
proposes to implement the national vision for India in terms of its statistical systems and