State planning to merge departments for more effective governance

The Mamata Banerjee government is planning to merge some of its departments for better functioning, sources said on Monday.

Highly placed sources said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee believes that this would add a new 

gush of adrenaline to the administration, making it more effective in expediting work.

According to the sources, at least 10 departments will be merged with some other departments. At present, there are 63 departments and it would stand at around 50 to 52 after the process.

If everything goes as planned, there are possibilities of agriculture, agriculture marketing and food processing departments to be merged into one.

Similarly, Youth Affairs and Sports departments would also be merged. There is also a possibility of School Education, Higher Education and Technical Education departments coming under one umbrella.

The final decision in this regard is expected to be taken in the next cabinet meeting scheduled to be held this month.

The process of merging the departments would get completed by the beginning of 2017.

Sources said that Ministers of State could be appointed in some of the departments after the merger. There will also be a reshuffle in the posting of the IAS officers.

It may be mentioned there are some ministers those are in charge of two separate departments. 

The departments were assigned under the same minister as their functions are related.

Citing example of the Youth Affairs department and the Sports department, an official said that Aroop Biswas is the minister for both the departments and Laxmi Ratan Shukla is the Minister of State for the same departments. 

As a result, there would be better functioning if the departments are merged.

Similarly, Partha Chatterjee is the minister of both the School Education department and Higher Education department. Sources said that it has been assessed that the functioning would be better if both are brought under one roof.