Goyal to meet Modi; to set priorities for power sector

Says coal production, renewable energy and making discoms healthy will top the priority list

Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal will today meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss and establish top priorities in the power sector.

"(I) will be meeting the Prime Minister on the agenda to be set (for the sector) today evening," Goyal told reporters here.

Coal production, renewable energy and making discoms healthy will top the priority list, he said.

"Priority will also be to light up every house in the country," Goyal said, adding that the government is looking at holistic solutions to issues faced by the sector.

On the 100 day agenda for the sector, he said, "We are looking at a haul, no agenda has been set for 100 days, we are here for 5 years, we are looking at 5 years and not 100 days."

Health, water, energy and roads will be top priority, among other things, for the new government led by Modi, according to the 10-point agenda unveiled last week.

It also includes increasing focus on areas such as greater transparency in governance and building confidence amongst the country's bureaucracy.

Goyal said the current government does not require security cover decision making.

"EGOMs and GOMs were an escape route for the previous government, we don't need a shield around decision making," he said.

The new government has also scrapped these bodies -- EGOM (Empowered Group of Ministers) and GOM (Group of Ministers) -- set up by the previous regimes. Modi-led government is of the view that the ministries should be empowered to take decisions.