By IANS,
New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reshuffled his cabinet, the recast team got down to business with many of them flagging their priorities in the media glare and holding introductory meetings with officials.
With the monsoon session of parliament beginning August 1, some ministers also spelt out their legislative agenda, including bills relating to land acquisition and creation of a Lokpal (ombudsman).
While two cabinet ministers – Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi – got down to their newly assigned duties Tuesday within hours of the swearing in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, most others assumed charge Wednesday.
Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, whose portfolio has been changed twice in about six months, is yet to take charge of his new assignment.
Sources said Minister of State (Independent Charge) Srikant Jena, who was expecting an elevation to cabinet rank, had not yet assumed charge of his responsibility in the statistics and programme implementation ministry.
Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh also did not assume charge of his new responsibility Wednesday.
Gurdas Kamat had quit the council of ministers Tuesday after he was given charge of newly created Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
Ramesh, who gave a new profile to the environment ministry by his deep personal involvement in its work, set the pace of work in the rural development ministry.
He held meetings that stretched past midnight Tuesday and continued his meetings with officials of his new ministry Wednesday.
Ramesh told mediapersons that the land acquisition bill will be priority of his ministry.
“We will soon put out a draft Bill for public debate by middle of next week,” he said.
Salman Khurshid, who assumed charge as law minister Wednesday, listed farmers’ land acquisition and anti-corruption Lokpal bill as his top priorities.
He also listed bills ensuring food security, curbing communal violence and judicial accountability as being important for the government.
Khurshid said he would soon take a decision on resignation of Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam who is upset after Communications Minister Kapil Sibal substituted him with another counsel in the 2G scam case.
M. Veerappa Moily, who was Tuesday shifted from law to corporate affairs, said that passage of a new bill to replace the 55-year-old Companies Act and issues of corporate governance were his top priorities.
Moily, who had Tuesday complained about the law ministry having drawn flak for sins of administrative ministries, brushed aside suggestions that he was unhappy.
“This ministry is not new to me. As law minister, I used to get several references from this ministry,” Moily said, in his first comments after taking charge at his new office.
Jayanthi Natarajan, who assumed charge as Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests, said she will give priority to environmental concerns.
Milind Deora, minister of state for communications and information technology, said increasing the penetration of telephone services in rural areas would be his first priority.
The minister denied he was a “replacement” for his father Murli Deora, who was a minister before the reshuffle.
The ministers who took charge of their new responsibilities Wednesday included Beni Prasad Verma (Steel), Pawan Kumar Bansal (Water Resources), Paban Singh Ghatowar (Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region), Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare), Rajiv Shukla (Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs), Harish Rawat (Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs) and E. Ahamed (Minister of State for Human Resource Development).
Dinesh Trivedi had Tuesday evening gone to Fatehpur to meet victims of Kalka Mail accident in which at least 69 people were killed.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had Tuesday inducted eight new faces in his ministry and promoted three of his colleagues. He dropped seven ministers from his previous team.