New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Dr 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 on Tuesday within hours of the swearing in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, most others assumed charge on 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 on Wednesday.
Gurdas Kamat had quit the council of ministers on 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 on Tuesday and continued his meetings with officials of his new ministry on 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 on 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.
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 Prime Minister had on Tuesday inducted eight new faces in his ministry and promoted three of his colleagues. He dropped seven ministers from his previous team. (IANS)