PM Modi puts his stamp on rules for government's allocation and transaction business

NEW DELHI Jun 4, 2015,(Agency) : The NDA has changed the government's allocation and transaction of business rules 13 times since coming to power, in a bid to create synergies among departments working in silos, hack the dead wood in the Centre's operational blueprint and more recently, delegate more powers to ministries.Consider some of the changes brought in: the civil aviation ministry no longer regulates production of aircraft, the Border Roads Organisation has moved from the road ministry to the defence ministry that has been allowed to purchase land up to Rs.250 crore for its projects. Enabling provisions are now in place to fast-track senior bureaucratic appointments. Ministries don't need to approach the Cabinet for expenditure below Rs.1,000 crore.Veteran officers term the exercise as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's learning curve as



he strives to make New Delhi tick the same way as he once ran Gandhinagar.Coming from a chief minister's office where he was in complete control for 15 years to adjust to the Government of India environment takes time. These changes in business rules represent Modi's learning curve and reflect that he now realises he has to give more authority to ministers as only then, New Delhi will start moving," said excabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar.The initial approach of putting 'too much pressure' on officials and mantris to reach office on time, for instance, also appears to have eased up, he said. Allocation of business rules were changed and new departments created in the past too. The UPA had tweaked these rules that lay out the responsibilities and turf of each ministry and the domains of different cabinet committees 48 times in its 10-year reign.