Khattar allocates portfolios to three new Ministers

The nine-month old Manohar lal Khattar-led BJP Government in Haryana on Sunday reshuffled ministers and allocated portfolios to three new ministers, giving key departments of Transport and Housing to the newly inducted Cabinet Minister Krishan lal Panwar while the Chief Minister also continued to keep key departments with him.

Khattar kept key departments of Home, Power, Town and Country Planning, Urban Estates, Science and Technology, IT, Information and Public Relations and Cultural Affairs, plus any department not specifically allotted to any Minister.The portfolio allocation came three days after Haryana Cabinet expansion. The three Ministers namely Krishan lal Panwar (Cabinet rank), Ghanshyam Saraf (Minister of State with Independent charge) and Nayab Singh Saini (Minister of State) were inducted in the Khattar Cabinet on Thursday. 

The Urban local Bodies Department, which was earlier under Chief Minister has been allotted to Women and Child Development Minister Kavita Jain, the lone woman Minister in the 13-member Khattar Cabinet.Ram Bilas Sharma who was earlier holding the portfolio of Transport, will now hold charges of seven departments including Education, Tourism, Civil Aviation, Parliamentary Affairs among others.  Anil Vij has been allotted charge of low profile Archives department while he would continue to hold portfolios of Health and Sports Ministry.

The departments of Forests and Industrial Training, which were earlier held by Captain Abhimanyu has been allotted to Rao Narbir Singh. Captain Abhimanyu will now hold charge of 12 departments, including Finance, Excise and Taxation, Revenue and Disaster Management, Forests and Environment, Industry and Commerce and others. The departments of OP Dhankar have remained unchanged.

Among the Ministers of State, new inductee Ghanshyam Saraf will hold the charge of Public Health Engineering (independent charge), Excise and Taxation (attached with Excise and Taxation Minister) and Nayab Singh will look after Mines and Geology and Renewable Energy (attached with Chief Minister). Karan Dev Kamboj will hold the Food & Supplies Department (independent charge), Forests (with Capt. Abhimanyu); Bikram Singh Thekedar will retain the Cooperation Department (independent charge) , Agriculture (with Dhankar) while Krishan Kumar Bedi will also retain the portfolios of Social Justice and Empowerment portfolio, attached with Jain.

The newly-inducted Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) would assist the Chief Minister and his Cabinet Colleagues in functioning of various departments. CPS Shyam Singh Rana has been attached with Chief Minister and Finance Minister to look after the departments of Jails, Revenue, Consolidation and Rehabilitation. Bakhshish Singh Virk would assist Agriculture Minister, Seema Trikha would assist Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma while Dr Kamal Gupta will assist the Health Minister Anil Vij.

After last week's Cabinet expansion, apart from the Chief Minister, there are now seven Cabinet Ministers, two Ministers of State with Independent charge and three Ministers of State.The new inductees have already been allotted official rooms on sixth, eighth and ninth floor in state secretariat in Sector 1 here. The BJP came to power in Haryana for the first time after winning 47 seats in the 90-member assembly in the polls held in October last year. 

61-year-old Manohar lal Khattar, a first-time MlA from Karnal and a non-Jat leader known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was administered the oath along with nine ministers by Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki last year.