NEW DELHI: An unprecedented 400 files have been awaiting Prime Minister P.V Narasimha Raos signature since April.
The Prime Ministers inordinate delay in taking decisions is frustrating the bureaucracy and holding up the administration. Even during crisis periods such as V.P Singh’s last days when he was bogged down by both the Mandal and Ram Janmabhoomi agitations there has never been such a huge backlog of files regarding policy matters.
But now it appears that political issues such as the Solanki Bofors affair the Harshad Mehta stock scam and the controversial ABB deal are monopolizing the Prime Ministers time. A senior officer joked that in the last three months the only files which moved were those relating to parliamentary questions.
The backlog of 400odd files concern the Ministries of Power Oil & Natural Gas Commerce Coal Defence and Finance. Another important department whose files have been held up in the Prime Minister’s Office (PM) is the Department of Personnel. Some 11 files relate to appointments of police officers including the chiefs of the Central police organizations such as the Director General National Security Guard and the Director General Indo-Tibetan Border Police.
There are serious differences between Finance Minister Manmohan Singh and Petroleum.
Minister B. Shankaranand over the oil pricing policy but the Prime Minister has yet to decide on the issue though Manmohan Singh chimed during his Budget speech that ONGC could have received an extra Rs 1500 crore if a rational pricing system existed.
The Government has also dragged its feet about appointing members to the committee under former Cabinet Secretary P.K Kaur to reorganize ONGC. The committee was to have submitted its report by April 30 but the Government had not even announced the names of the committees members by that date though they were submitted to the PMC in November last year.
The policy resolution on agriculture which was drafted by V.P Singh’s Government and cleared by the Chandra Shekhar Government is still pending with the PMO despite reminders from Agriculture Minister Balram Akhar. It is felt that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board which was shifted from the JMO to the Department of Industrial Development is also slowly becoming infructuous thanks to indecision.
Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra had issued a circular to all secretaries to the Government of India to prepare an action plan for their respective departments.
Though reminders have been sent by the Cabinet Secretary nothing concrete has emerged.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 29, 1992
