After inducting 24 cabinet ministers, 9 ministers of state with independent charge and 24 ministers of state, Narendra Modi government 2.0 has the biggest cabinet till now. After appointing the biggest cabinet, the government now wants to involve Union Ministers of State (MoS) in the decision-making process.
According to Indian Express, in a bid to make the Ministers of State (MoS) involved in the decision-making process, the Cabinet Secretariat has directed all ministries to ensure that files are routed to the Cabinet ministers through the MoS concerned. The departments have also been warned to ensure that “no deviation on the ground of urgency is made”. Earlier, such work allocation orders were usually forwarded to every ministry after governments were formed, this year the new paragraph has been added – it states that all files, including starred questions of Parliament and calling attention motions, will have to be routed to ministers through the MoS.
Earlier, the junior minister handled low-key subjects such as official language and unstarred questions of Parliament. Sources told the Indian Express, that Joint Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Chandrashekhar Kumar wrote to all secretaries on June 7 and gave a template for work allocation. The new paragraph that was recently added states that all matters, barring those that will be disposed of at the level of MoS, “including Starred, Unstarred Parliament Questions and Calling attention Motions”, will be submitted to the minister through the Minister of State. “However,” it added, “VIP references addressed to the Cabinet Minister will be submitted directly to her/him.”
