Mamata retains home, health depts; inducts 16 new ministers
KOLKATA: At least 43 members of the third cabinet of the Mamata Banerjee government were on Monday sworn-in as ministers during a low-key ceremony at the Raj Bhawan, amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers.
Three TMC leaders Amit Mitra, Bratya Basu, and Rathin Ghosh were sworn in virtually. Mitra is unwell and both Basu and Ghosh are recuperating from Covid-19. Those who were sworn in include 24 cabinet ministers and 10 ministers of state (independent charge).
Eight women were sworn in, and with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the total number of women has increased to nine.
The portfolios were decided at the first cabinet meeting of the government at the state secretariat.
The chief minister retained the portfolios of Home and Hill Affairs, Personnel and Administration, Health and Family Welfare, Land and Land Reforms and Refugee and Rehabilitation, and the Information and cultural affairs and North Bengal Development.
Almost all the senior ministers in the previous administration, including Amit Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim and Partha Chatterjee, have been retained.
Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwari, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s detractor Akhil Giri, senior leader Biplab Mitra and former IPS officer Humayun Kabir are among the 16 new faces.
While most of the ministers
retained their old portfolios, among those who were given new charge included Partha Chatterjee, who was made minister for Industry, Commerce, and Enterprise as well as Information Technology and Electronics and Parliamentary affairs.
Chatterjee who was the Industry minister in the first term of the TMC government had been removed from the charge to replace Bratya Basu as the education minister.
Chatterjee continued as the education minister in the second term of the TMC dispensation, but Banerjee named Basu in his place this time.
Md. Ghulam Rabbani is the new minister for Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education. Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay was given the Agriculture portfolio, while Aroop Biswas, who will continue as the Sports Minister, will be in charge of the power department.
Jyotipriyo Mallick, who was the Food and Supply minister in Banerjee’s last cabinet, was named as the Forest minister while new face Rathin Ghosh was given charge of the Food and Supply department. Mallick will also be the minister for the Non- Conventional and Renewable Energy Sources department.
New faces Manas Bhunia, Bankim Hazra, Biplab Mitra will be ministers for Water Resources Investigation and Development, Sunderbans Affairs, and Agricultural Marketing departments respectively. Bhuniya was a minister in the first term of the Trinamool Congress government when he was a Congress MLA.
Another newcomer in the cabinet, Pulak Roy was made minister for the Public Health Engineering department.
Chandranath Sinha, who was the fisheries minister in the last term, was given charge of the MSME and Textiles department while Firhad Hakim will be the minister for Transport and Housing.
Senior leader Subrata Mukherjee was retained as the minister for Panchayat and Rural Development, Public Enterprises and Industrial Reconstruction department and veteran Amit Mitra will continue as the states Finance Minister.