JOIN USModi rejigs six Cabinet committees, heads four
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reconstituted six Cabinet committees, indicating his priorities and targets for the new government.
Modi will head the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which is the largest, consisting of 13 ministers.
The composition has an omnibus look with ministers from all economic ministries as well as that of agriculture and food processing, besides those handling petroleum, power and commerce.
Modi has included representatives from the Shiv Sena, Telugu Desam Party and the Akali Dal, for ensuring that the NDA partners were on board through all tough decisions that are likely to be taken in the days to come.
As the prime minister, Modi will head the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and the Cabinet Committee for Appointments, which will only have Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Apart from Modi, the CCS will include Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs will be headed by Singh.
Singh will also head the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation, which oversees allotment of flats to ministers and other political leaders.
Jaitley, Parliamentary Affairs and Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari are other members of the panel.
On June 10, Modi had scrapped four Cabinet committees, including one on Unique Identification Authority of India, as part of his efforts to streamline decision-making processes.
The other committees that were disbanded were the Cabinet Committee on Prices (CCP), the Cabinet Committee on Management of Natural Calamities and the Cabinet Committee on World Trade Organisation Matters.
The functions of the CCP will now be handled by the CCEA, while activities of the Cabinet Committee on Management of Natural Calamities will be handled by the committee under the Cabinet Secretary whenever natural calamities occur.
By scrapping these committees, Modi sought to send a clear signal that the NDA government will take quick decision by junking the multi-layered approach of the previous governments.