Montek Gets Transport, Power, Oil

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who took over as executive member of the Planning Commission on Wednesday, has been allocated transport, power, petroleum, communication, aviation, industry and mines.

But the former finance secretary will not deal with financial resources and prospective planning. The Planning Commission has had serious differences with the finance ministry on budgetary support to the Ninth Plan during Ahluwalia's tenure as finance secretary.

Ahluwalia's workload, which also includes India's relationship with the World Trade Organisation, is roughly equal to the load handled by three Planning Commission members during the United Front regime.

The commission now has three executive members, the other two being deputy chairman Jaswant Singh and member-secretary H R Hasim. This is against eight executive members during the United Front regime.

Ahluwalia has also been allocated coal, rural development, tourism, surface transport, railways, information technology and the Indo-Japan Study Group.

This leaves agriculture, irrigation, health, education, prospective planning, financial resources, poverty eradication, plan coordination and administration to be handled by the two other executive members.