The coin flips: Fewer ministers, more officials being cleared for trips abroad under Modi govt.

Indian Express: New Delhi: Sunday, December 21, 2014.

One visible change in the first six months of the Modi government is that fewer ministers, and more and more officials, are being cleared for trips abroad on government duty.

According to information provided by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to The Sunday Express under the RTI Act, 23 ministers were cleared for 74 foreign trips between May 26, the day the BJP-led government took charge, and November 25. During the same period last year, 64 UPA ministers were cleared for 221 foreign trips.

But more bureaucrats are heading abroad on official visits under the Modi government 136 officials were cleared for 285 trips. During the same period under the UPA, 58 officials were given the green signal for 67 trips abroad.

The Modi government had only 44 ministers until November 9. Its expansion has raised that number to 65. But it is still not as large as the UPA-II government which had 77 ministers.

MEA sources point out that one reason why more officials, and fewer ministers, are travelling abroad is because some ministers, who are in charge of multiple departments, are deputing officials for these trips. There are also instances of trips not being undertaken despite clearance.

Even clearance requests by officials are under the lens. It has been made clear to senior officials that they should check whether their presence abroad is absolutely necessary or the objective can be achieved by deputing a junior. One official involved with the clearance procedure said: “Several requests for trips by secretaries are for minor events where junior officers can be deputed.”

Ministers who have been cleared for trips in the last six months include Dharmendra Pradhan, M Venkaiah Naidu, Harsimrat Kaur Badal,Nirmala Sitharaman, Prakash Javadekar, Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Shripad Yesso Naik.

Secretaries shown the green light include Arvind Mayaram, Amitabh Kant, Ajit M Sharan, Bimal Julka, G Mohan Kumar, G S Sandhu, K Vijay Raghavan, R K Mathur, Rajeev Kher, Shailesh Nayak, V Chhibber and Ashok Lavasa.