New Delhi: If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants his ministers to hit the ground running, Jairam Ramesh and Veerappa Moily are determined to set the pace.
So, a day after the HRD Minister Kapil Sibal made public his revolutionary agenda, setting the pace on Friday Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh announced a major policy shift in environmental clearances.
"It's been one month since I took charge... there were 700 pending cases ... by 30th June this will be down to 250 cases," he says.
The minister also wants greater transparency and from next month all projects pending environmental clearance will be put on the Internet for public scrutiny.
The tone from the environment ministry was quite clear. Don't take environmental clearances for granted. If all goes well, citizens too will be able to ask questions about projects, which may have a bearing on their surroundings.
If Jairam was putting forth his plans, how could Moily be far behind?
Transparency and accountability were the buzz words on Friday for Union Minister for Law And Justice M Veerappa Moily who announced his big priorities, making the Judiciary accountable. And to start with, he proposed making it mandatory for judges to declare their assets.
"Judiciary is not opposed to declaring assets. I am going to introduce a bill for declaring assets by Judges," he says.
Moily says the impeachment proceedings against Calcutta High Court Judge Soumitra Sen will be started.
It seems Manmohan Singh's 100-day agenda is the new mantra for the government.