PEO:- Programme Evaluation Organization
PEO stands for Programme Evaluation Organization. It was established in October 1952, as an independent organization under the Planning Commission. It was at first established to evaluate the community development programmes and other development schemes. However, with the implementation of Five-Year Plans, The PEO was extended to a variety of other sectors, including rural industries, fisheries, agriculture cooperation, health, family welfare, public distribution, rural electrification, tribal development, social forestry, rural development etc. The PEO thus became an important centrally sponsored organization. The PEO evaluates and assesses the process and impact of the development programmes, identifying the pros and cons at different stages of administration and execution, analysis of reasons of success and failure, examining people’s reaction and identifying the scope of improvement for the future. The PEO is a three-tier organization, with its headquarters at the Planning Commission at New Delhi. The middle link includes 7 regional Evaluation Offices and the connecting link between the two are the Field Units or Project Evaluation Offices, which are in 8 major states. However, with the scrapping down of the Planning Commission in 2015, the PEO was replaced by Independent Evaluation Commission (IEO), regulated and controlled by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog.
