Cabinet approves creation of ‘Chief of Defence Staff’ post

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The Cabinet today approved creation of post of Chief of the Defence Staff, CDS which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day Address this year. The post of Chief of Defence Staff will be the rank of 4-Star General with salary equivalent to Service Chiefs and will head the Department of Military Affairs to be created under Ministry of Defence and will function as its Secretary.

The Cabinet also approved conduct of Census of India 2021 and updation of National Population Register. Cabinet approved expenditure of over 8 thousand 754 crore rupees for the exercise of Census of India 2021 and over 3 thousand 941 crore rupees for updation of National Population Register.

Briefing on the Cabinet decisions, Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal said, the Cabinet approved organisational restructuring of Railway Board. He said, Railway Board will be headed by Chairman Railway Board who will be the Chief Executive Officer with 4 Members and some Independent Members. Mr Goyal said, existing eight Group A services of the Railways will be reorganised into a Central Service called Indian Railway Management Service, IRMS. He said, unification of services will end departmentalism, promote smooth working of Railways, expedite decision making, create a coherent vision for organisation and promote rational decision making.

He added that unification of services has been recommended by various committees for reforming Railways and reforms undertaken with overwhelming support and consensus of Railway officers, at a two-day conference Parivartan Sangoshthi held on 7th and 8th of this month. Mr Goyal said, its a huge reform to end departmentalism and working in silos in Railways. 

The Cabinet further approved Atal Bhujal Yojana, a Central Sector Scheme to boost farmers’ income with total outlay of six thousand crore rupees. Briefing media after the meeting of the cabinet, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said, the scheme will be implemented over a period of 5 years in identified areas in Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The Cabinet also approved Promulgation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019. The Cabinet further gave ex-post facto approval for official amendments to the Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2019 moved and passed by the Lok Sabha on 9th of this month.