New Haryana ministers get portfolios
CHANDIGARH: The three new ministers in the Haryana cabinet were allotted portfolios on Saturday even as chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar divested senior minister Capt Abhimanyu of some key departments, besides re-shuffling portfolios of some members of council of ministers.
Faridabad MLA Vipul Goel is the new cabinet minister of Haryana for industries and commerce, environment and industrial training departments.
The new minister, Manish Grover (MLA from Rohtak), got cooperation, printing and stationery (independent charge) and is attached with urban local bodies (ULB) department minister Kavita Jain.
Banwari Lal (MLA from Bawal) has been given independent charge of public health engineering department and attached with renewable energy department with chief minister Khattar.
Grover got the departments of Bikram Singh Thekedar and Banwari Lal, that of Ghanshyam Saraf both of whom had been dropped by Khattar on Friday.
Finance minister Capt Abhimanyu was divested of four of his departments. While industries and commerce and environment departments have now been given to Vipul Goel, labour and employment has been allotted to Nayab Saini as independent charge, and the ESI department, which was earlier held by Capt Abhimanyu, has now been kept by chief minister Khattar himself.
Capt Abhimanyu, however, continues to keep finance, revenue and disaster management, excise and taxation, planning, law and legislative, institutional finance and credit control, consolidation and rehabilitation departments.
The agriculture minister, Om Prakash Dhankar Khattar, was also divested of one of his important department, irrigation, which has now been kept with himself by Khattar.
Khattar, from his own portfolios, gave mines and geology department to Dhankar, science and technology to health minister Anil Vij, architecture to public works department minister Rao Narbir, jails department to transport minister Krishan Lal Panwar and information, public relations and cultural affairs department to ULB minister Kavita Jain.
Among others, education minister Ram Bilas Sharma has been divested of his civil aviation department and given elections department which was earlier with Vij. Sharma’s civil aviation department has been given to Rao Narbir. Narbir also got architecture department, which was earlier held by Khattar. Narbir’s industrial training department has been given to Goel. Jain also lost social justice and empowerment department which has been now been given to Krishan Bedi.