NEW DELHI: In a first, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met secretaries of all the government departments collectively and asked them to directly get in touch with him to resolve policy issues and expedite decision-making.
Modi held a three-hour-long marathon meeting here with them with intent of giving the bureaucracy a greater role in decision-making with thrust on transparency and speedy and effective governance. To ensure that implementation of decisions and programmes are not stuck in “red-tape”, he asked secretaries to call him or e-mail him directly for suggestions or intervention required in resolving issues or expeding decisions, sources said.
During the meeting, first by a prime minister directly with all the secretaries without ministers, Modi made initial remarks and then asked secretaries to raise issues. About 25 secretaries spoke on the sectoral issues under their responsibility.
“Discussions focused more on making governance more effective,” a source said. In all, 77 top bureaucrats, including finance secretary Arvind Mayaram, home secretary Anil Goswami, defence secretary Radha Krishna Mathur and foreign secretary Sujatha Singh, were called for the meeting.
People with knowledge of the meeting said 16 groups were formed by clubbing related ministries. All finance ministry departments were grouped together, while secretaries of energy-related departments—power, coal, oil, mines and atomic energy—were put together.
Agriculture and related departments were clubbed under one head, while the infrastructure group comprised of railways, telecom, roads, civil aviation, shipping and posts. The sources said the prime minister illustrated what kind of work he expected them to perform. No presentation was made by the secretaries.
