NEW DELHI: Nearly 8 lakh calls to citizens in 10 days flat, few quick questions to answer and a key input sought for any improvements -- this is how the Modi Government has recently, and silently, done a ground-check of the implementation of its key schemes.This massive exercise done using nearly 800 call agents of the BSNL was to identify the districts which have fared the best in the country in implementing four major schemes - Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY), Swachh Bharat (Gramin), Swachh Vidhyalaya and Soil Health Card . Based significantly on this key feedback from the citizens, PM Narendra Modi will be awarding the best districts on Civil Services Day on April 21 with prizes worth Rs 10 lakh each -- the first time the format of the PM Awards will be to award districts which excelled in the 'Implementation of Priority Programmes’.Senior government officials told ET that it was in fact the PM's idea in early February that feedback from the scheme beneficiaries should also be sought to judge which district had best implemented the priority schemes. Departments overseeing the four schemes had submitted official data with a initial short-list of the exceptional districts. Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha then oversaw the 'calls to citizens' exercise, initiated in double-time within 3 weeks of the PM's suggestion. An 8-10 point questionnaires for each of the four schemes was prepared to be put to people in the shortlisted districts.ET has learnt that nearly 800 call agents of the BSNL were roped in to call up over 7.6 lakh people over 10 days in the last week of February and early March with questions which were to be answered in a Yes or No, and a query on suggested improvements. "This must be the biggest exercise carried out by any central or state government ever in such a short time span to get citizen feedback. The improvements suggested by the beneficiaries in itself is a very important input for bettering the schemes further," a senior Cabinet Secretariat official told ET, speaking on the condition of anonymity.The citizen feedback will be a "effective input" in selecting the award-winning districts which have gone through a multiple filtering process of evaluation/expert committees. For the awards, states/UTs have been divided into categories for a level-playing field -- one category is the eight north-eastern and three hill states of J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand , second category is the 7 UTs and third category is rest of the states. A district in each of the three categories will be awarded under the four schemes except for Swachh Bharat (Gramin) and Soil Health Card Scheme in the UTs since the scheme does to apply there. There will be 10 awards in all of Rs 10 lakh each.The main judging criteria is efficient and corruption-free implementation of the priority scheme. The District Collector and the officer directly responsible for implementation of the scheme will be awarded for each of the winning districts to showcase the concept of team spirit. For PM Jan Dhan Yojna, the key criteria is ensuring reduction in zero balance accounts, especially those of women, efforts in implementing the PMJDY in difficult geographical terrains, the BPL numbers, number of Aadhaar seeding done as well as availability of the Bank Mitras to the account subscribers. Questions posed to citizens regarding the PMJDY success have revolved around these points as well. Specific questions posed to citizens were if they were aware of the provision for the accident insurance cover in the PMJDY and if their Rupay card had been activated.Under the Swachh Schools scheme, the key criteria for an award-winning district is if the project led to improvement in school attendance of girls due to construction of toilets, whether the toilets in schools had been constructed on time and if there was a behavioural change through cleanliness in school. On Swachh Bharat (Gramin) scheme, the key criteria is level of village saturation, sustainability of the cleanliness drive, extent of community involvement and innovations in implementation of the scheme. For the Soil Health Card Scheme, the criteria remains if trained soil scientists have been deployed and if sample analysis was done on time. Farmers who got calls regarding the scheme were asked if they were informed of the schedule of sample collection and if officials used devices for identification of grids for sample collection.