PM reviews performance of ministers
June 9th, 2011 - 12:59 am ICT by IANS
New Delhi, June 8 (IANS) With corruption scandals denting the image of his government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday continued with the exercise of reviewing the performance of his ministers that could set the stage for a reshuffle-cum-expansion of his cabinet before next month’s monsoon session of parliament.
Manmohan Singh is closely reviewing the performance of important ministries like railways and telcom and is keen to bring in some fresh faces with a clean record, who could help rebuild the image of the coalition government, reliable sources said.
He is understood to have met Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vyalar Ravi, who is also the civil aviation minister; Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, who also holds the telecom portfolio, and others in an appraisal exercise.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Defence Minister A.K. Antony are set to keep their jobs.
The external affairs ministry, headed by S.M. Krishna, the commerce and industry ministry helmed by Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh’s environment ministry will be among those keenly watched in the run up to the reshuffle.
While returning from a trip to African countries last month, Manmohan Singh had said that he will apply his mind to the cabinet reshuffle after reaching home. It’s now nearly a fortnight since he returned, and he is expected to carry out a reshuffle sooner rather than later.
The proposed expansion of the cabinet acquired a note of urgency after Mamata Banerjee became the chief minister of West Bengal following a stunning victory in the elections and resigned as railway minister at the Centre. Her party colleague Mukul Roy, who has been given additional charge as minister of state for railways, may be elevated to cabinet rank in the ministry, sources said.
There are also some vacancies created by the resignation of A. Raja as telecom minister in the wake of the 2G spectrum scam. Moreover, some states are not been represented in the union ministry, for instance Chhattisgarh, Goa and Manipur.
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