PM holds meet on infrastructure; sets firm targets

Two days after the Congress promised party workers that it would overcome the perceived paralysis in policy-making, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday chaired a meeting on infrastructure development attended by key cabinet members; and announced a set of targets and firm deadlines for implementation of infrastructure projects.

The prime minister reportedly asked the ministries to go the ''extra mile'' for implementing the projects and ''expeditiously resolve any inter-ministerial differences that may arise''.

''In these difficult times, we must do everything possible to revive business and investor sentiment,'' he told his cabinet colleagues.

The meeting was attended by the ministers for power, railways, roads, shipping, civil aviation and coal. Railway minister Mukul Roy of the Trinamool Congress skipped the meeting.

Even more conspicuous by his absence was finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, normally ubiquitous in all cabinet committees, usually heading them. The DNA newspaper speculates that Prime Minister Singh is keen to kick Mukherjee upstairs as the Congress nominee for President and take over the finance portfolio himself.

Mukherjee, not averse to such a proposal, is deliberately steering away from matters of government policy, the report suggests.