P Chidambaram, A K Antony & Sharad Pawar get wider EGoM roles after Pranab Mukherjee's exit

NEW DELHI: With PranabMukherjee moving to the President's office, the government has decided to divide the ministerial panels that he headed so far among senior ministers.

Home minister P Chidambaram has been appointed as the head of the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) that decides pricing of public issues of public sector companies while defence minister AK Antony will the new chairperson of an EGoM on pricing and commercial utilisation of gas as well as the the head of the EGoM on ultra-mega power projects (UMPPs) Of the current 39 ministerial groups, Mukherjee had chaired 12 GoMs (Group of Ministers) and 12 EGoMs.

While EGoMs are empowered to take decisions, GoMs can only make recommendations to the cabinet.

The government has entrusted Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar with the task of chairing an EGoM on management of drought and related issues, apart from GoM on environmental clearances to coal blocks and GoM on integrated strategy for water management.


But these decisions were communicated by the cabinet secretariat to the ministries last week before the political stand-off between Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress-led UPA-II broke out. Pawar and heavy industries minister Praful Patel boycotted a crucial cabinet meet last Thursday, and it is not certain whether they would remain in the cabinet.

Chidambaram will replace Mukherjee as head of a GoM on amendments in Competition Act. He was recently made head of EGoM on spectrum and a GoM to discuss a draft coal regulator bill. The panel on coal regulator may meet on Wednesday.