NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s independent parleys with secretaries of all departments separately are not just a ritual of taking stock of the big picture, but are also being used to resolve their issues on a real-time basis, some of which could be announced in the upcoming Budget and eventually reflect in NDA's policy stance in different sectors.The PM has asked top finance ministry and Planning Commission officials to be part of every such meeting with individual departments and is learnt to be instructing them to take note of specific issues and come up with feasible alternatives to improve implementation and policy issues.The finance ministry has a bird’s eye view of all budgetary allocations as well as the capacity of ministries to utilise funds under different heads, while the Planning Commission is clued into the stated intent and structures of centrally funded schemes and what may be the implementation barriers that lead to poor outcomes.Officials said that in many cases, the PM has asked for certain issues and ideas to be resolved or considered by the finance ministry and the Planning Commission, which he chairs, across the table.“The PM is meeting all departments to take stock of their plans, objectives and hurdles... He has specifically asked for Planning Commission secretary Sindhushree Khullar and a secretary from the finance ministry to be present at these meetings,” said a senior government official.Usually, the finance ministry is being represented by expenditure secretary Ratan Wattal at these presentations. The PM is using the presence of these two officials to ascertain if any major changes or ideas proposed or sought by an individual department are feasible and practicable, given India’s fiscal constraints.“The PM is actively consulting the two and taking a hands-on, realtime approach to resolving problems and suggesting tweaks to the programmes of each ministry during their PowerPoint presentations.Though the Budget making is a parallel exercise, some of his directions at these meetings should find their way into the Budget and the policy framework eventually,” said an official.While the PM started his interactions with the bureaucracy in a town-hall meeting with all secretaries to the government on June 4, since then he has been meeting every department’s top officials independently, taking feedback on their plans, looking at their financial outlays and constraints and discussing best possible options to clean up their Augean stables.At his meeting with all secretaries, Modi had empathised with officials’ helplessness in pursuing the right decisions in national interest under the previous regime and said he understood ‘their anguish in not being able to realise their true potential because of circumstances.’So far, the prime minister has held such focused departmental meetings with the cluster of ministries dealing with food and farm issues, energy ministries, the civil aviation ministry and the rural development ministry.That the Prime Minister’s Office has issued an official statement after only one such meeting, on June 13 when he met various farm-related ministers and secretaries, indicates that they are being used to kick-start serious policy and programme-wise debate and decisions that are not yet ripe for being made public.