Hours after 21 MLAs took oath to be part of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s newly reconstituted ministry, he allotted portfolios to every of them, retaining departments of Home, General Administration and Pension & public grievances with him.
Thirteen MLAs have been inducted within the newly shaped state cupboard in the course of the day and eight others appointed as minister of state (impartial cost).
The improvement got here days after the Naveen Patnaik authorities accomplished three years of its fifth consecutive time period because the chief minister.
On Saturday, all 20 ministers of the state resigned, paving approach for the reconstitution.
Ministers who’ve been allowed to retain the departments they held earlier than tendering resignation embrace Jagannath Saraka, Niranjan Pujari, Prafulla Kumar Mallick, TK Behera and Ashok Chandra Panda.
Saraka will proceed to carry the portfolios of ST & SC Development, Minorities & Backward Classes Welfare with extra cost of Law, whereas Pujari has been reappointed as finance minister.
Mallick will get to maintain Steel & Mines and Works departments, N Ok Das the well being and household division, and Panda Science & Technology, apart from Public Enterprise and Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disability.
Behera, other than holding the sports activities folio, will even be liable for the Electronics & Information Technology division.
Cabinet minister RP Swain, who earlier held the meals provides portfolio, has been given the cost of Agriculture & Farmer Empowerment and Fisheries & Animal Resources Development.
Former well being minister Atanu S Nayak has been allotted Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare, together with the cooperation division, whereas PK Deb has been given three folios — Industries, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and Energy.
Similarly, Pramila Mallick has been allotted Revenue and Disaster Management division, Usha Devi Housing & Urban Development division and Tukuni Sahu given Water Resources and Commerce and Transport departments.
BJD chief Rohit Pujari will maintain the upper schooling portfolio within the state, whereas Basanti Hembram allotted the departments of Women & Child Development and Mission Shakti.
Among the ministers of state with impartial cost, Samir Ranjan Dash will proceed his stint in School & Mass Education division.
Aswini Kumar Patra might be a minister of state within the departments of tourism, Odia Language, Literature & Culture and excise.
Sources within the BJD mentioned new and relatively youthful faces have been made ministers, with an eye fixed on 2024 elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assembly.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”