NEW DELHI (TIP): As his government heads towards completing one year in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking again to his bureaucrats to put in their best to bring back shine to the image of the BJP government.
In his third such interaction since he became the prime minister, held on April 1 Modi assured them that they need not fear taking “honest decisions” as some officials expressed fear over repercussion and scrutiny in the future.
Both Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who was also present, told the officials that they were looking into the problem of filing of frivolous complaints against them, employing the Right to Information Act.
But they must work fast for an effective campaign to showcase the achievement of his government in the last 11 months, Modi told the officials. In particular, the prime minister mentioned the success of coal block auctions and the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.
“The prime minister once again urged all secretaries to consult each other regularly, to eliminate silos, if any, and speed up the process of decision-making,” an official statement said.
He underlined that a “communication gap” in “this team was absolutely untenable”, it added. Modi’s interaction came on a day when three more senior IAS officers from Gujarat cadre were appointed as joint secretaries in the Union Government, taking the number of Gujarat cadre officers in Delhi to over 20.
Known as trusted lieutenants of Modi, G C Murmu, principal Secretary to the chief minister, was appointed as joint secretary expenditure, R P Gupta, principal secretary, civil supplies as joint secretary coal and Rajkumar, principal secretary agricultural, as joint secretary economic affairs.
These officers will join other Gujarat cadre colleagues in Delhi, including A K Sharma, P K Mishra and Rajeev Topno, who are in the Prime Minister’s Office. Besides, Hasmukh Adhiya was deputed last year as finance secretary and Gauri Kumar is secretary cabinet (co-ordination).
Soon after taking over as the prime minister on May 26 last year, Modi had met all the secretaries on June 4 and told them to fearlessly take decisions and that he would back them.