PM calls meet to set agenda and targets for ministers

After shuffling his pack of ministers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will call a full meeting of his council on Thursday, ostensibly to set the agenda for the remaining term of the UPA, including a blueprint to sustain the reforms. Saubhadra Chatterji reports.

After shuffling his pack of ministers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will call a full meeting of his council on Thursday, ostensibly to set the agenda for the remaining term of the UPA, including a blueprint to sustain the reforms.

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With only about 17 months to go before facing the next general election, the Prime Minister is also likely to crack the whip on meeting targets.

Senior ministers, according to sources, are likely to be asked to assign major responsibilities to their juniors. After Sunday's cabinet rejig-expected to be the last before the next Lok Sabha election - 33 Ministers of State (MoS) will work under 32 cabinet ministers.

This will be the first such meeting in UPA 2.

A meeting of the full council of ministers was planned last year but had to be cancelled at the last moment because of a terror blast in Maharashtra.

While there is no fixed agenda, the meeting assumes significance as the new team takes charge amid the government's new-found zeal to push forward the reforms process.

The Prime Minister is also likely to tell his colleagues to sustain this momentum on reforms.

"He is unlikely to speak on specific subjects but will certainly give a broad roadmap on how the ministers should perform for the next one and a half year," an official said.

The Prime Minister inducted 18 new ministers on Sunday. In the latest reshuffle, the PM is seen to have rewarded the pro-reformists section.

But with the party set to face 13 state elections in the next two years before hitting the campaign for the 2014 general poll, the UPA is also set to take several pro-people initiatives.