Title - Government will have to look for successors to head Pranab’s GoMs

With Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee virtually set to move to Rashtrapati Bhawan as President, government will have to look for successors to chair the two dozen odd GoMs and EGoMs he heads.Mukherjee chairs ministerial groups on diverse issues from deciding the location of the National War Memorial to tackling issues related 2G and 3G telecom licenses.Of the current 39 ministerial groups, he chairs 12 of the 27 Group of Ministers and all the 12 Empowered Group of Ministers.Among the keenly watched EGoMs is the ministerial group on auction of telecom spectrum for its examination of the 2G reserve price and the policy for auctioning spectrum.Another EGoM takes decisions on the Centre's policy on the Mass Rapid Transport System, which includes metro rail projects in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.The group on procurement and management of food is also a crucial one as it also deals with the UPA-II's ambitious agenda of the National Food Security Bill. The EGoM has taken some key policy decisions like opening the export of wheat and rice last year.The ministerial group on under-recoveries of the oil marketing companies on sale of petrol, diesel, PDS kerosene and domestic LPG which decided to raised the prices of three regulated items.