In a meeting held at Chandigarh on Wednesday Haryana cabinet led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khatter approved to reorganize merging as many as 20 departments to 10 for improvement in government efficiency. According to a spokesman of state government the action is being taken in a bid to bring synergy in functioning of various government departments and streamlining of the work.It was decided to merge and re-organize some departments having similar nature of work in order to improve administrative efficiency. Haryana Cabinet led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar approved this re-organization and merger of various departments on Wednesday.
However, no staff cadres will be merged at present to avoid legal complications of seniority of some of the officers as well as staff members in various departments. The government spokesperson said that as per the decision the departments of New and Renewable Energy will be merged with Power department and will be renamed as Department of Energy. Similarly, the decision was taken to merge Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes, Social Justice and Empowerment Department now to be name as a new department as Department of Social Justice, Empowerment, Welfare of SCs and BCs and Antyodaya.
Decision was taken as regard Department of Higher Education, Technical Education, Science and Technology to be merged into a single department named as Department of Higher Education in which portfolios of few ministers in the state including Chief Minister himself, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala and Home Minister Anil Vij may be changed on the suggestion by Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal. As regard Archaeology and Museums Department has now been merged with Tourism Department now to be renamed as Department of Heritage and Tourism. As per decision Forests and Wildlife Department and Department of Environment and Climate Change have been now been merged into a single department to be known as Department of Environment, Forests and Wildlife. Similarly, Art and Culture Department has been merged with Information, Public Relations and Languages Department renamed as Information, Public Relations, Languages and Culture Department. Youth Affairs component of the Sports Department has been merged with the Skill Development, Industrial Training Department and Employment Department to be renamed as Department of Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship.
Meanwhile, Department of Electronics and Information Technology has been dissolved and the electronics manufacturing and private IT have been merged with the Industries and Commerce Department. The existing work of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology has been allocated to different departments whereas the work related to the IT Industry has been reallocated to the Industries Department.
