Comments
In an effort to expedite the decision making process, the Modi Government has set deadlines for inter-ministerial consultation on Cabinet and Cabinet Committee notes. And when Ministries fail meet the deadline, the Secretary will have to explain.
A communication from the Cabinet Secretariat to all the Secretaries said, “In all the cases where the notes for the Cabinet/Cabinet Committees are required to be circulated for inter- ministerial consultations, the entire process will be completed in two weeks’ time.” The two-week deadline will start from the date on which copy of the draft note is delivered to Ministries.
The communication further said all the instructions mentioned, ‘may be noted for strict compliance.’
The circular said, in case the consulted Ministries or Department fail to forward their views within two weeks, the sponsoring Ministry/Department (one which has moved the note) will mention this in the final note. The new instruction will suppress the circular issued on May 27, 2011.
The previous circular gave 15 days’ time for comment on issues where there are no financial implications and four-weeks time for issues having financial implications. Further, one more week’s time was given to give the views. However, the total time available for final comments would, in no case, exceed six weeks. This will no longer be applicable.
New circular The new circular said“if any consulted Ministry/Department has inputs that it considers necessary or critical for decision making in the case and these could not be communicated to the sponsoring Ministry/Department in time, Secretary of such Ministry/Department could be required to indicate such inputs during the meeting of the Cabinet along with reasons for not having been able to provide the comment in time.” It has also been decided that the Ministry will first send a copy of the final note to the Prime Minister Office and then will get three days time to deliver the required number of copies to others. Currently, Ministries/Departments get seven days time to forward required number of copies of Cabinet notes.
It has already been communicated that the final notes received in the Cabinet Secretariat up to Thursday of a particular week and found to be in order, will ordinarily be placed for consideration of the Cabinet/Cabinet Committee in its meetings to be conveyed in the following week.
Meeting of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee now usually takes place on every Wednesday.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.