In what can be described as a first major step by the BJP-led NDA Government to do away with a legacy of the UPA era, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday abolished all the existing nine Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoMs) and 21 GoMs in order to expedite the decision-making process and ensuring greater accountability.
Though the Congress was guarded in its reaction to the Government’s decision, it defended the setting up of the ministerial panels by saying that they were necessitated due to the complexities of issues having inter-ministerial connotations.
Congress leader Manish Tewari, while stopping short of criticising the BJP-led Government’s decision, said that it is the prerogative of every Government to run the administration in the manner in which they want.
“But may I respectfully point out that GoMs and EGoMs were constituted primarily because most issues these days are complex. The issues have inter-ministerial connotations and implications,” he told a television news channel.
The decision taken by Modi seemed to be on the cards and The Pioneer on May 12 had reported that the panels could be done away with as even before the BJP Government assumed power at the Centre, the Cabinet Secretariat had begun the exercise of seeking feedback from all the ministries on the utility of EGoMs and GoMs.
The ministries were even asked by the Cabinet Secretariat to give a performance appraisal of several of these panels. “The Ministries and Departments will now process the issues pending before the EGoMs and GoMs, and take appropriate decisions at their own level. Wherever the Ministries face any difficulties, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) will facilitate the decision-making process,” a statement issued by the PMO said.
In its second term which began in May 2009, the UPA-II had set up a total of 94 such bodies - 78 GoMs and 16 EGoMs. Those abolished were yet to submit their recommendations. While the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram headed the EGoMs, the then Defence Minister AK Antony and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar headed the GoMs.
The UPA was criticised for setting up so many GoMs as well as EGoMs on each and every issue, though at that time the logic behind the move was that since the Union Cabinet cannot take all the decisions on its own, there was a need to set up the panels which played a major role in easing the Government’s burden on decision-making.
GoMs on issues as varied as linking of rivers (which never took place during the UPA’s tenure) to media-related matters as well as EGoMs on gas pricing, 3G spectrum auction, ultra-mega power projects, development of North-Eastern region and even damage of standing crops, were set up.