Thursday, March 30 2006 15:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In an effort to expedite early approval of various schemes and projects, the Union Cabinet today (Mar 30, 2006) doubled the delegation of financial powers of Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The Cabinet, at its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved enhancement of the financial powers of Chidambaram to Rs 200 crore from existing Rs 100 crore and of Mukherjee to Rs 100 crore from the present Rs 50 crore.

Announcing this after the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told reporters that the enhancement of the financial powers would cover 'non-scaled and new items'.