PMO assigns roles to Mishra, Doval, Sinha
NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister’s Office has clearly defined the roles of the top three officers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s team. An order issued hat came on Friday lists the areas that the new Principal Secretary PK Mishra will handle, and the ones that will be handled by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and Principal Advisor to Prime Minister PK Sinha. The last is a new position.
The work distribution has been done so that Mishra will handle all important policy issues especially those pertaining to the listing of Cabinet items.
The order states that apart from the appointments committee of the cabinet and any other appointments to the government of India, Mishra will also be in charge of the Ministries of Personnel, Law, Anti-corruption and the overall PMO.
While Mishra will handle appointments even to the ministries of defence, MEA, and intelligence agencies such as the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Doval will handle other matters pertaining to these departments. He will also be in charge of all matters relating to national security. Doval has also been allocated the issue of talks with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) separatists.
The newly-appointed advisor Sinha will handle the rest of the ministries.
The order comes in the wake of the appointment of Mishra as the principal secretary to the PM last week, the highest bureaucratic position in the government. Both he and Doval hold cabinet rank.
Mishra was the prime minister’s additional principal secretary and was last week elevated as his Principal Secretary after Nripendra Misra stepped down.
Sinha is a former Cabinet Secretary and was last month appointed as Officer on Special Duty in the PMO before being made Modi’s Principal Advisor.