Split ministry has teething problems

NEW DELHI, OCT 23: Prime Minister A B Vajpayee may have had political compulsions to swear in a jumbo ministry. But the decision to split...

NEW DELHI, OCT 23: Prime Minister A B Vajpayee may have had political compulsions to swear in a jumbo ministry. But the decision to split the urban development ministry into two to accommodate senior party leader Satya Narayan Jatiya as Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation minister with Cabinet rank has created problems of jurisdiction and coordination.

The urban development ministry has now been demarcated and the department of urban employment and poverty alleviation, which used to function under a joint secretary rank officer under the overall supervision of the Minister of state, will now be headed by Jatiya. Jatiya has also been given the key department of housing which was overseeing the election manifesto promise of constructing two million houses a year in the country.

As Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation minister, Jatiya, the Union Labour Minister in the last government, will not have much leeway with an annual budget of only Rs 130 crores. Most employment and poverty alleviationprogrammes run by the government are concentrated in rural areas. Urban employment programmes, if any, are routed through the employment exchanges and only a minuscule budget exists for poverty alleviation in urban areas.

Urban Development Minister Jagmohan and his Minister of State, Bandaru Dattatreya, still continue to enjoy control over a large chunk of the ministry8217;s departments including urban policy planning and infrastructure, Central Public Works Department CPWD and corporations such as HUDCO and NBCC.

But ministry sources say the divide has caused problems of 8220;coordination and over-lapping of powers.8221; 8220;At present, the powers of the two ministries have not been clearly demarcated8230; since both deal with common issues, there is a lot of confusion over jurisdiction,8221; a senior ministry official said.

Probably as a sop to Jatiya, the department of housing also stands transferred to the new ministry and this is where most problems of coordination and jurisdiction will crop up. The housingdepartment in the ministry plans and implements all housing projects of the government but HUDCO, the main financier of these projects, is still under the control of the urban development ministry.