The United Progressive Alliance government got down to business in its second term with five of the six key Cabinet ministers alloted portfolios assuming charge of their respective offices today and setting out their priorities.
P Chidambaram, A K Antony and Sharad Pawar returned to the Home, Defence and Agriculture ministries they were in-charge during Manmohan Singh's first term while Pranab Mukherjee came back to the Finance Ministry, a portfolio he had held 25 years ago in Indira Gandhi's government. All the ministers convened meetings of their top officials to get a quick update on pressing issues.
Chidambaram said a 100-day action plan will be implemented from June 1 and that Naxalism, terrorism and insurgency in the North-East were the key challenges.
Text: PTI
S M Krishna, the former Karnataka chief minister and ex-Maharashtra governor, assumed office as the new External Affairs minister after making his Cabinet debut.
Dressed in a light grey bandgala suit, Krishna stepped into his South Block office in the midst of developments like
the Gurudwara clash in Austrian capital Vienna and its violent fallout in Punjab, North Korea conducting a second nuclear test and a new Nepaalese prime minister being sworn in ending weeks of political uncertainty.
Voicing concern over the nuclear test carried out by North Korea, Krishna said the act amounts to violation of its
international commitments and that the development could have "adverse effect" on peace and security in that region.
Krishna also said the government was in touch with Austrian authorities and closely monitoring the situation
following the killing of a Dera sect leader in a Gurudwara. The government, he said, was "determined to ensure that the perpetrators of this completely mindless and wanton act are brought to justice."