On Government table — plan to carve out ‘Department of Delhi-NCR’ with second secretary in Urban affairs ministry

The move comes just months after Additional Secretary in MoHUA, D Thara, was empanelled as Secretary in February. She, however, continues as Additional Secretary, handling the key projects of the Central Vista redevelopment, Delhi division and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).

Thara, a 1995-batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, has been posted in the ministry since 2019, first as Joint Secretary and then as Additional Secretary since 2021. She has handled the Central Vista redevelopment plan since its inception. Prior to Central deputation, she served as Vice-Chairperson and Managing Director of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation and as Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner.

Another Gujarat-cadre IAS officer, Srinivas Katikithala (1989 batch), is the current MoHUA Secretary.

The ministry also handles urban transport, including Metro and Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) projects, Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). The National Capital Region Planning Board and National Capital Region Transport Corporation, which is implementing the RRTS projects, also function under MoHUA.

Sources said the proposed tweak is intended to pave the way for the seamless and efficient administration of the Capital, which has a plethora of government bodies and agencies. Insiders also pointed out the timing of the move — a little over a year after the BJP came to power in Delhi after a gap of almost three decades.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has clearly stated his objective of making New Delhi a world-class Capital. Like the appointment of career diplomat Taranjit Singh Sandhu as the Lieutenant Governor, this, too, is intended as a step to enhance efficient governance through a well-oiled bureaucratic machine, synchronising Delhi’s Lok Niwas, and possibly similar authorities in areas falling under the NCR such as Haryana, Noida, Ghaziabad among others, with experts in the Prime Minister’s Office,” a source said.

“Recently, the party’s senior leadership is understood to have pointed out issues related to lack of adequate progress in significant initiatives such as Yamuna rejuvenation. On the other hand, the L-G is said to have been given the go-ahead to intensify efforts at bringing global investment to Delhi’s urban and public transportation infrastructure as well as tourism,” said a BJP insider.

The Union ministry handling urban development has had two departments in the past.

According to the ministry’s annual report for 1995-96, it was renamed as Ministry of Urban Affairs & Employment and bifurcated into two departments — the Department of Urban Development and Department of Urban Employment & Poverty Alleviation — in March 1995.

After that, the ministry saw different iterations over the years, until the current version in 2017, when the Ministry of Urban Development and Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation were merged.

“This will not be the first time that such a bifurcation takes place, given the sheer magnitude of the responsibility and its mandate. Due to variable factors such as population as well as rapid and haphazard urbanisation, urban development has always been a dynamic sphere in Delhi. What appears to be new in regard to the move is the possibility of accommodating a larger National Capital Region under a dedicated bureaucratic framework,” a senior official said.

Since coming to power in 2014, the NDA government has merged ministries in order to improve coordination. In fact, this was one of the BJP’s promises in its 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto.

“To transform India into a developed nation, we need to work with the guiding principle of ‘minimum government and maximum governance’… In order to ensure better implementation of policies and coordination, we will merge similar and complementary departments into sectoral ministries. This will allow policymakers to frame holistic and comprehensive policies on the one hand and ensure smooth implementation on the other,” the BJP manifesto had said.

Soon after winning the 2019 elections, the NDA government created the Jal Shakti Ministry, by merging the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.