CM to rejig Cabinet, carve out 7 new dists
KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that a Cabinet reshuffle was on the cards, with four to five new faces expected to get inducted into the council of ministers. The reshuffle will be announced on Wednesday.
Banerjee said: “We shall reshuffle our ministry but not completely change it as some media reports are claiming.”
She added: “Veterans in the ministry like Subrata Mukherjee who was in charge of the Panchayats & Rural Development department and Sadhan Pande who held the charge of Consumer Affairs and Self Help Group (SHG) department had passed away. Partha Da (Partha Chatterjee) who has been in charge of the Industry, Information Technology & Electronics (IT & E) and Parliamentary Affairs departments is in jail. Who will do their work? So we need somebody to fill their void.“
Four to five ministers will be relieved of their portfolios and the same number of new faces will be inducted as new Cabinet ministers.
After the arrest of Chatterjee in the teacher recruitment scam case probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently, Banerjee has been holding the additional charge of Industry, Commerce, IT & E and Parliamentary Affairs.
“It is not possible for me to shoulder the charge of so many departments. Four to five present ministers will be utilised in party organisation and 4 to 5 new faces will be inducted,“Banerjee said.
Though the Chief Minister did not name any new faces to be inducted into the Cabinet, there are speculations about Tapas Roy, Udayan Guha, Snehasis Chakraborty becoming Cabinet ministers. Paresh Adhikari who was the Minister of State for Education is likely to be dropped.
Pulak Roy who holds the charge of Public Health Engineering department was given the additional charge of P&RD minister in November following the death of incumbent Subrata Mukherjee.
Manas Bhunia who holds the charge of the Water Resources Investigation and Development department was given the additional charge of the Consumer Affairs department in November last year after Sadhan Pande was hospitalised because of his illness. He died in February this year. Shashi Panja who holds the charge of the Women & Child Development & Social Welfare department is holding the charge of the SHG department which was also under Pande before his death.
The Chief Minister also announced that seven new districts will be carved out in Bengal for the smooth functioning of the state administration.
“Within six months we will create seven new districts in the state. These are Sunderban, Ichhamati, Ranaghat, Bishnupur, Kandi, Berhampore and one will be named in Basirhat (the name will be finalised soon),” Banerjee said.
With the creation of seven new districts, the total number of districts in Bengal will go up from 23 to 30.
Sunderban will be created from South 24-Parganas, Ichamati under Bongaon subdivision and Basirhat
In North 24-Parganas, Ranaghat will be carved out from Nadia, Bishnupur from Bankura and apart from existing Murshidabad, two new districts namely Kandi and Berhampore will be created.
According to sources, the proposed Sunderbans district is likely to be formed with Gosaba, Basanti and Kultali areas in South 24-Parganas.
Meanwhile, according to sources, Banerjee told her Cabinet ministers not to do anything that dishonours the party or the ministry.