Deadline near, CMs rush to cut down load

As state governments rush to meet the July 7 deadline for pruning their ministries, they are discovering that the exercise is turning out to...

As state governments rush to meet the July 7 deadline for pruning their ministries, they are discovering that the exercise is turning out to be a far greater headache than they thought it would be.

Meghalaya Chief Minister D.D. Lapang has secured the resignation of all his ministers, making way for re-constitution of his ministry. However, he has simultaneously initiated a move to rope in his counterparts in Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh to jointly petition Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to devise some way to let the North-East states have ministries larger than what the new law allows.

The going was not easy for Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh who had a difficult time getting his deputy, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, to put in her papers after all the other ministers handed him their resignation letters. The new ministry is likely to be sworn in on July 6 or 7.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who has to drop at least 22 ministers from his 65-member ministry, has planned a similar mass resignation exercise for Monday, while his Uttaranchal counterpart Narain Dutt Tiwari is still weighing his options.

The 91st Constitutional Amendment Act, passed by Parliament last December, limits the size of ministries to 15 per cent of the strength of the Assembly. In the case of smaller states, the maximum size has been pegged at 12.

The states which need to prune their ministries include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Nagaland.

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has worked out a formula to downsize his 36-member Democratic Alliance of Nagaland government, under which his Nagaland People8217;s Front NPF would have 10 ministers while the BJP and the JDU would have one minister each.

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Two states, where no action is visible yet for downsizing ministries, are UP and Bihar. UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is saddled with 88 ministers, has to drop at least 28 of them. RLD leader Ajit Singh, who has 13 MLAs, accounts for seven ministerial berths in Mulayam8217;s team.

Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi carries an excess load of 16 ministers, while Jharkhand has 13 ministers in excess. Jammu and Kashmir has to drop 27 ministers, Punjab at least 13, and Himachal Pradesh five.