Manmohan Singh to meet his full ministerial team

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of the entire Union Council of Ministers, at his residence on Thursday morning. It is expected to set the tone of governance for the last 18 months of UPA-II. Meetings of the entire ministry are rare. A senior official in the Cabinet Secretariat indicated that PM last interacted with junior ministers in January 2010, to listen to their grievances. Singh is likely to use the opportunity to give the message that the next one year would be crucial for the Congress-led UPA government.

He would underline the need to work as a united team and concentrate in pushing the reforms agenda kick-started by the government. The meeting would come ahead of the November 21 winter session. As the monsoon session was washed out because of BJP's refusal to allow the House to function, the PM is likely to send the message to his ministers that they would have to prepare better for the forthcoming session and push crucial legislations through. Having inducted new faces, the PM's attempt now apparently is to make the most of the new-look ministry. Usually, Thursdays are reserved for Cabinet meetings, but this one would be a busy day for Singh and his Cabinet ministers. The meeting is to be followed by another of the Cabinet and a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.