The Prime minister’s office can be considered as an agency that helps the prime minister efficiently perform his role, responsibilities, and functions. Going back to the time, the first post of prime minister was created just after the independence of India in 1947. A person who is the prime minister of India can also be considered as the head executive of the government. Where the prime minister’s office (PMO) can be considered as an extra-constitutional body that means there is no mention of PMO in constitution of India. For the first time in India, the PMO was considered as part of the Indian government in 1961 by the allocation of business rules in India. The PMO is headed by the secretary of the prime minister of India and the secretary has had this responsibility since 1977. Now we also have the secretary of the prime minister as the principal secretary of the prime minister.
What is PMO?
The prime minister’s office (PMO) can be considered as an agency that consists of the staff of the prime minister of India. With the immediate staff, various support staff are available in multiple levels for reporting to the prime minister. This office is headed by the principal secretary of the prime minister of India. The main responsibility of the PMO is to provide secretarial assistance to the prime minister.
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Structure of PMO
The structure of the PMO can easily understand using the below points:
- The PMO is headed by the prime minister in the political sense.
- The PMO is headed by the principal secretary of the prime minister in an administrative sense.
- There can be one or two additional secretaries of the prime ministers who are part of the PMO.
- There are 5 joint secretaries of the prime minister who are part of the PMO.
- There can be a number of directors, secretaries and junior secretaries who are part of the PMO.
We can also think of PMO as the link between a prime minister and the other ministers in the government.
Functions of the PMO
It is obvious that if the PMO is a part of the government then it needs to have some function. There are various functions of the PMO and some of the important ones are listed below
- Since the prime minister is the chief executive in the government he needs to work in a proper way and direction. The task of the PMO is that it helps the PM in order to discharge his responsibility as the prime minister or chief executive.
- The PMO takes care of and deals with all the references that come under the guidelines and rules of business that comes to the PM.
- The prime minister of India is also the chairman of the planning commission and PMO helps the PM to fulfil all his responsibilities as the chairman of the planning commission.
- PMO also provides assistance to the PM in examining and optimising new cases that are submitted to him.
- The PMO is also responsible for dealing with the public relations of the PMO.
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Status of PMO
The status of any office can be defined by the relation between the superior and the junior of the office similarly the relation between PM and principal secretary can define the status of PMO. Using the following points we can define the status of the PMO.
- The level of trust that the prime minister has on the principal secretary determines the status of PMO.
- The weakness of the principal secretary makes the prime minister ask the cabinet for decisions that make the PMO weak.
- In a situation where the government is a coalition PMO can be weak in comparison to the PMO when the government is formed by a majority party.
- Personality of the staff of the PMO plays an important role in determining the status of the PMO. the staff should be capable of making decisions that are acceptable to the cabinet to apply to citizens of the country.
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Conclusion
PMO is an agency for the government that helps the prime minister of India to fulfil all his responsibility regarding running the governance of India. There are various staff works in the PMO including immediate staff and support staff and PMO headed by the principal secretary of India in the administrative sense and his personality defines the status of PMO.