A frisson of electric excitement ran through the security personnel and housekeeping staff at North Block, which houses the Finance Ministry, on Thursday.

The reason: Union Minister Arun Jaitley was having a ‘home-coming’ of sorts and returning to duty after 100 days away from work, during which time he underwent a surgery for kidney transplant.

Accordingly, at Gate Number 2 of the Block, where the Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs works, senior CISF officials were giving last-minute instructions to their personnel, while the housekeeping staff were doing their best to keep the area — right from the alighting point to the scanner area to the lift and to the entrance of the Minister’s chamber on the first floor — sanitised.

A new office ambience greeted Jaitley at work. The familiar wooden statue of Lord Ganesha has been removed from near the gate of the Finance Minister’s chamber; a new wooden statue of Lord Ganesha has replaced the metallic statue of Nataraja placed between the stairs and the lift on the first floor.

Jaitley underwent a renal surgery on May 14. In his absence, Piyush Goyal, Minister for Railways and Coal, was assigned the job of Interim Finance Minister.

On Thursday morning, a press communiqué from the President House read: “The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has directed to assign the portfolios of the Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs to Arun Jaitley.”

A somewhat leaner Jaitley, 65, arrived a little before 11 am. He stood at the gate for a few moments for photoshoots. But once the formalities were concluded, Jaitley waded into work.

He held meetings with senior officials, including Finance Secretary (also holding charge of the Revenue Department) Hasmukh Adhia; Expenditure Secretary Ajay N Jha; Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar; Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes Sushil Chandra; and Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Custom S Ramesh.

At 1 pm, when Jaitley came out, reporters finally managed to greet him. Officials said the Minister was willing to return post lunch, but was advised to take rest and resume work on Friday.

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