NEW LOOK: MODI COMPLETES REVAMP OF PMO
NEW DELHI: Before boarding the flight to Houston for the “Howdy, Modi!” mega show on September 20, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reorganised his office, or the PMO, with work allocation to senior officers designed to boost efficiency and ensure optimum delivery, completing a process that he began in late August.
The new Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), as a result, bears little resemblance to the old. Many of the old faces have been dropped, and in other cases, responsibilities have been reassigned.
Thus additional secretary Tarun Bajaj, a 1988 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, has charge of several key ministries (including the ones focused on science and technology) — Parliament, Right to Information (RTI), and also Jammu & Kashmir and the Northeastern states and Haryana. In addition, he has oversight of finance, trade, corporate affairs, NITI Aayog and statistics.
His batchmate Arvind Kumar Sharma is in charge of most infrastructure ministries, including civil aviation and petroleum (these are new additions to his portfolio). He has also been given charge of the politically important states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha. While Debashree Mukherjee has been made joint secretary in-charge of social sectors including health, human resources, skill development and social justice, foreign service officer Gopal Baglay continues to handle defence, external affairs and atomic energy.
Charge of all finance- and industry-related departments is with Arvind Shrivastava. And V Seshadri, who will report to Bhaskar Khulbe, secretary to the Prime Minister, will oversee personnel, anti-corruption unit and appointments committee of the Cabinet. The agriculture and rural sectors have been allocated to Shrikar Pardeshi. Work pertaining to other states has been distributed among the other joint secretaries, except Baglay. There was a similar order, dated February 5, and compared to that it is clear that in the new PMO the work allocation is a whole lot more specific.