New Delhi: Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar is busy with the map of India these days. A former general secretary of the BJP, the Steel and Mines Minister has been tasked with identifying the parliamentary constituencies to be visited by his colleagues in the cabinet.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Tomar to allot two constituencies each to 24 cabinet ministers to spearhead the government’s campaign on the success of the programmes it implemented in the 20 months in office.
As per the plan, Tomar has been allotting two constituencies each every month to senior ministers, including Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu. The programmes will be organised by government departments in association with local units of the BJP. Allies Shiv Sena, Telugu Desam and Akali Dal will also participate in the programme in their strongholds.
The plan, which was kicked off this month, will take a year to complete. Initially, the programme would be limited to the constituencies represented by members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance but it would later be spread to other constituencies as well.
Tomar has chosen Chemicals and Fertilisers Minsiter Anant Kumar to work in his own constituency Gwalior. BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is also from Madhya Pradesh, would coordinate with the party units and local leaders to make the programme a success.
The ministerial outreach is part of “Trishul”, the three-pronged programme assigned by Modi to his ministers. Modi is unhappy thatthe messages of the government's initiatives have not reached the entire population. He wants his ministers to highlight the success of programmes such as Jan Dhan (banking access for poor people), crop and general insurance for the poor, Clean India campaign, Make in India, and the soon-to-be-launched Startup India.
Connecting ministers with MPs
The other two prongs of Trishul were completed in December during the winter session of Parliament. The first was a meeting between ministers and NDA MPs. Each cabinet minister was told to meet with a dozen MPs over dinner and hear their feedback on the functioning of the government. Ministers of state also attended these dinner meetings.
Only Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was exempted, as he was busy with official and personal engagements. Anant Kumar coordinated between the cabinet minister who hosted the dinner and his guests. The ministers got anearful from MPs who had been feeling left out of the government's deliberations as they get very little time with the prime minister. They also conveyed their grievances about the functioning of other ministers.
Modi then asked senior party leader and Health Minister J P Nadda to collect specific inputs from the vocal MPson issues on which they were being neglected and the ministries on which there were most complaints. Nadda got a heap of suggestions and complaints on human resource development, railways, agriculture, communication, social justice ministries and his own health ministry. He compiled the feedback into points on which action could be taken and submitted the list to Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.
Many MPs complained that several ministers were not taking their calls and that their letters elicited standard replies that the subject was under the consideration of the ministry.
Nadda also suggested that ministers should set aside an hour for MPs during parliament session and strengthen the secretarial staff for dealing with suggestions and requests from MPs.
If all goes well, MPs can expect more sympathetic ministers when Parliament is convened in February for the budget session.
Disclaimer
The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Manorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.