Narendra Modi shifts officials close to Patel

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR, OCT. 8. Mr. Narendra Modi began his first day in office today as the Gujarat Chief Minister by making sweeping changes in his office, shifting some of the top bureaucrats, particularly those considered close to his predecessor, Mr. Keshubhai Patel.

He began the morning with diverting the Narmada river waters to the perennially-dry Sabarmati river. Then he addressed a joint meeting of the senior secretaries of various departments, held separate meetings with the Indian Air Force and armed forces personnel in the light of the U.S. attack on Afghanistan and had a video-conference with the district Collectors. In a media conference, Mr. Modi side-stepped questions, including on the distribution of portfolios to the Ministers sworn in with him on Sunday and on plans to expand his 10-member Cabinet saying that the decisions would be communicated ``at an appropriate time''. But he said he had already issued instructions to the departments concerned to organise elections to the village panchayats ``at the earliest,'' a move the previous Government kept postponing for the last one year.

He told the senior secretaries that he would not tolerate undue delay in the implementation of various pro-people programmes.

The video-conference was an introduction but he told the Collectors that he would get back to them with specific issues later and that he expected them to be ready with positive answers. He told the senior officials and the Collectors that they should make `e-governance' facility available to the common man to enable him to directly reach the Chief Minister.

Mr. Modi said he would accord highest priority to water and power scarcity and urged the Congress to take up with its Government in Madhya Pradesh the speedy implementation of the Narmada Dam project. He said he intended to carry forward the projects of the Keshubhai Patel administration ``taken within the framework of the BJP ideology and programmes''.

Mr. Modi announced an incentive scheme for the villages which would elect their panchayats unanimously and refuted that it would amount to discrediting the democratic process. He refuted the Congress criticism of the ``extravaganza'' during his swearing-in ceremony and said playing host to the thousands of people was `no crime'. He refused to disclose the expenditure the State exchequer incurred in organising the ceremony. ``It is for the media to find out,'' he said, but claimed it was much less than Rs. 4 crores as claimed by the Congress.

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