Eye on aam aadmi, push for social sector ministries

Powered by the success of the aam aadmi schemes in the previous term,the Congress and PM Manmohan Singh on Thursday....

Powered by the success of the aam aadmi schemes in the previous term,the Congress and PM Manmohan Singh on Thursday decided to give these schemes a better political push by handing over the crucial Health and Rural Development ministries,which were with its allies previously,to political performers within party.

While the Health Ministry,which looks after the UPA Governments flagship National Rural Health Mission,has been given to political heavyweight Ghulam Nabi Azad,the Rural Development Ministry that handles the other flagship scheme,the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme,has been given to C P Joshi,who has a proven administrative track record from his days in the Rajasthan government.

Azad will have his task cut out to provide a fresh push to the health sector given that his predecessor,PMKs A Ramadoss,was known for his preoccupation with controlling AIIMS and ban on tobacco consumption. Joshi,on the other hand,will have to match the work of predecessor RJDs Raghuvansh Prasad Singh,who launched and implemented the NREGS with decent success.

Story continues below this ad

Given Rajasthans success in implementing the NREGS, Joshis experience in handling the rural development sector during Ashok Gehlot government in 1998 will come in handy. He has been given the additional charge of Panchayati Raj Ministry.

Given the importance of these two social sector ministries,the PM has provided both more than one Ministers of State. While Azad has got Trinamools Dinesh Trivedi and DMKs Gandhiselvan as MoS,first-time minister Joshi will be assisted by Trinamools Sisir Adhikari,Congresss Pradeep Jain and NCPs Agatha Sangama all of whom are also first-timers.

The two social sector ministries apart,the PM has handed over the HRD Ministry to Kapil Sibal,who is considered a liberal,in a break from his predecessor Arjun Singh,who was found putting his foot on the forward-looking plans of the PM himself. Sibal will be assisted by incumbent D Purandeswari.

In the other social sector ministries Labour,Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation,Social Justice,Women and Child Development,Minority,and Tribal Affairs the PM appeared to have struck a community representation balance. Social Justice Ministry has been given to political heavyweight and senior Dalit leader Mukul Wasnik as against lightweight Meira Kumar in the previous regime. Wasnik will be assisted by DMKs D Napoleon.

Story continues below this ad

In another push to the social sector,the PM has provided the responsibility of Labour,and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) ministries to Cabinet rank ministers as against the MoS (Independent charge) in the previous regime. HUPA Ministry has been given to Cabinet minister Kumari Selja,who earlier handled the ministry as an MoS (Independent). This can be seen in the context of the governments plan to come out with a urban job guarantee scheme like NREGS. The Tribal Affairs Ministry has been assigned to MP Congress leader Kantilal Bhuria,who was earlier MoS,Agriculture. Women and Child Development has gone to Krishna Tirath,a former Delhi Social Welfare Minister.