NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is facing a space crunch. Sitting in the country’s most prime real estate in South Block, the PMO already has a prime target in its firing line.
Just over a week ago, sources said, the PMO wrote a letter to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to move out of its rooms in South Block.
The DAE, which is part of the PM’s portfolio, has its headquarters in Mumbai, but it keeps three rooms in South Block, especially for the Secretary. It remains to be seen if DAE will hand over their rooms on the first floor, but it has already created a flutter.
“It shows that the PMO is really going to be pro-active in managing its space,” said a government official.
The letter has led to some trepidation in South Block, especially since DAE’s rooms are basically like an island surrounded by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
In the last five years, there have a couple of attempts from the PMO to garner more space in South Block from MEA, but they had been rebuffed successfully.
PMO officials had pointed out that only about 10 per cent of the rooms in South Block belong to the PMO, with the MEA getting more than 100 rooms and the rest populated by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
With Narendra Modi's PMO already demonstrating a more assertive nature than that of Manmohan Singh, there is wariness that MEA, which is right next door, could also be muscled out of the prime real estate.
There is also the MOD on the other side, which is always ready to pounce upon any vacant space. “MOD officials seem to proliferate like rabbits. See them in every nook and cranny, taking over our space,” complained a senior MEA official.
Previously, the PMO had pointed out the MEA’s shiny second home on Janpath as being the reason enough to loosen its grip on South Block. But, MEA officials have argued that space is also a premium in Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan, with height restrictions on the central vista putting lids on additional floors.
While South Block accommodates all the MEA territorial divisions, except two, the majority of the supporting and specialised divisions, like United Nations Political, United Nations Economic and Social, Energy Security and Multilateral Economic relations, are now operating from the `300-crore building.
Interestingly, officials said that JN Bhawan has got the most “intensive” use ever in the first month of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. So far, she has used the elegant Hyderabad House for hosting bilateral talks only once with her first foreign visitor, Omani foreign minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah.
After that, she met with Chinese and Russian guests in the Bhawan, preferring the convenience of the conference room in JNB (as it is called in short). The banquet room in JN Bhawan has also proved up to the task to host diplomatic luncheons.
“The minister is based in JNB for a large part of the day. So, it is easier to just go down a floor for the meetings,” said an official.