NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening abolished four cabinet committees, including the one dealing with the Unique Identification Authority of India ( UIDAI ) and decided to reconstitute five top cabinet panels that deal with Security, Economic affairs, Political and Parliamentary affairs and appointments, taking another significant step towards his goal of downsizing the government.The decision to do away with cabinet committees dealing with Prices, World Trade Organisation, UIDAI and natural calamities comes ten days after the Modi administration scrapped all the groups of ministers set up by the UPA to deal with prickly policy proposals.It is in sync with the Modi’s mantra of 'minimum government and maximum governance' and signals the new government's desire to dismantle the UPA model of governance, which heavily relied on ministerial panels. “What happened in the UPA’s decade-long rule – a dozen cabinet committees and over 100 groups of ministers to take decisions — was unprecedented,” said Naresh Chandra, who served as cabinet secretary under P V Narasimha Rao.The Manmohan Singh government had as many as twelve cabinet committees in place apart from dozens of groups of ministers and empowered groups of ministers.Cabinet panels are the apex bodies for taking decisions on policy matters across sectors. “From Jawaharlal Nehru's time, India has typically had just five crucial cabinet committees dealing with security, economic affairs, political affairs and routine things like appointments and accommodation,’’ said Chandra, who welcomed Modi’s move to revert to these core panels for decisions. Decisions on the UPA’s flagship project ,UIDAI, whose future role is uncertain under the new government, will be brought to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).“Major decisions in this area have already been taken taken and the remaining issues will be brought to the CCEA,” said a statement issued separately by both the cabinet secretariat and the Prime Minister's Office. While the functions of the panel on natural calamities will be net committees.The PM could choose to co-opt more members even on the Cabinet Committee on Security that traditionally requires the home, defence, foreign affairs and finance ministers to be members.For instance, Nehru had inducted Lal Bahadur Shastri on the committee even when he was minister without a portfolio. Similarly, Rao had included his HRD minister Arjun Singh into the committee.The re-constitution of these panels may also reflect the differences in the composition of the NDA and the UPA, and the fact that the BJP does not need to rely on its allies in the manner that the Congress Party did.For instance, the cabinet committee on parliamentary affairs which had nine members, three special invitees and was chaired by former defence minister AK Antony, could be smaller as the NDA government doesn’t need to accommodate as many allies as the UPA did. Moreover, the PM could retain charge of the committee, instead of outsourcing it to a senior cabinet colleague as Manmohan Singh had done.Similarly, the ten-member cabinet panel on political affairs seen in the UPA days could become leaner. The UPA had inducted Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, renewable energy minister Farooq Abdullah and aviation minister Ajit Singh in the CCPA to incorporate the allies.