Patna, Feb. 6: The Bihar government is ready with its report on strengthening the state’s statistical system to be sent to the Centre to pave way for the release of central funds.

S.K. Sinha, a retired director-general of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), has prepared the report. The plan would be tabled for final approval before the state screening committee, headed by development commissioner K.C. Saha, on February 15. It would be sent to the Centre thereafter.

The exercise is being carried out as part of the central government’s India Statistical Strengthening Project (ISSP) for which the Centre has taken a loan of Rs 650 crore from the World Bank.

Sources said the project entails collection of vital statistics under 20 heads. Under this project, the states have to submit their report to the Centre about the work they intend to carry out to strengthen the statistical data collection and meet the international norms. Based on these reports, the Centre would release funds to the state in the form of a grant.

Some of the main points of the report are, re-structuring of state statistical department and creation of seven divisions in the statistical directorate, wide-scale use of IT in data collection and dissemination work, enhancing the manpower, capacity building of existing manpower and setting up a network that could ensure a quick transfer of data from blocks and districts to the state headquarters.

The report also calls for making rules for implementation of the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008. “The implementation of these suggestions would usher in a totally different era as far as data collection work in the state is concerned. The present system of data collection does not meet the international standard,” a source in the statistical directorate told The Telegraph.

The source said the existing system of data collection marred with shortcomings such as lack of well-defined norms, time lag in supplying information about the data collected from the field and no co-ordination between government departments and directorate resulting in non-supply of data to the directorate.

“Lack of sufficient manpower is another major problem. At present, against the sanctioned strength of 1,400-odd posts, the statistical department is carrying out its works with just about 50 per cent employee strength,” added the source. He said introduction of a new system of data collection would also nullify the scope of tampering with data collected from the field, as those responsible for this job would not be able to tamper with figures once they upload the data.

Sharing information about the cost component of this ambitious project, the official said based on Sinha’s report, the state should get around Rs 90 crore from the Centre under the ISSP and Rs 38 crore on the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission.

“The state government would have to provide additional fund if required for addressing the points mentioned in the report,” he added.