Date:01/11/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/11/01/stories/2004110104591101.htm

National

Let's get down to business, Manmohan to tell colleagues

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, OCT. 31. Starting tomorrow, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, proposes to send out a message to his administration that everyone should get going with the business of governance and start deliveringon the Common Minimum Programme.

On Monday, the Prime Minister is scheduled to meet his entire Council of Ministers and share his perceptions and assessment of what has been accomplished and what needs to be done. This is the first time Dr. Singh will be meeting all his ministerial colleagues since taking office in May.

There is a realisation that the Maharashtra Assembly elections distracted the Government from giving its hundred per cent to the task of "delivering." With the elections out of the way and the issue of chief ministership settled, the Prime Minister expects the administrative and political energies to get re-focussed on the promises made in the Common Minimum Programme.

The Prime Minister's Office has prepared an assessment of the performance of various ministers and ministries. This will provide the basis for Dr. Singh's interaction with his team. Apart from sending out a "get cracking, gentlemen" message, the Prime Minister hopes to gel with his colleagues over dinner.

Dr. Singh is expected to address a meeting of the Chief Secretaries of all States the next day. His message to them would be that it was time the civil services felt responsible as well as empowered. This was also his theme when he addressed a meeting of the Secretaries of the Government of India.

De-politicisation

The understated theme would be de-politicisation of the administration, a malady much more serious at the State level. Dr. Singh wants the civil services to know he expects more initiative and enterprise from them.

On November 3, Dr. Singh is to address the annual gathering of the Directors-General of Police. This meeting, chaired by the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, brings together the senior-most police officers in the country. The Prime Minister is expected to covey the necessity of a sensitive, honest and efficient police force for a good governance agenda. He will hear the police officer's views on how the political leadership can help them.

Over the next three days, the broad message from the Prime Minister to the political, administrative and police hierarchies, thus, would be: deliver.