State Ministers get portfolios, six axed

MUMBAI, OCT 31: The State Government has finally taken shape, ending a fortnight of uncertainty.After nearly three weeks of bickering on ...

MUMBAI, OCT 31: The State Government has finally taken shape, ending a fortnight of uncertainty.

After nearly three weeks of bickering on the size of the jumbo 61-member Cabinet, ministers were given their portfolios on Saturday and, as per Friday’s agreement reached by the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, six ministers dropped from the Democratic Front Cabinet.

The Congress dropped Satish Chaturvedi, Harshavardhan Patil, Madhu Chavan, Bhuichandra Sawarbandhe while the NCP dropped Rajesh Ankush Tope and Rajendra Shingane.

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The NCP sees the announcement as a tactical victory, for its demand to sack the ministers was unconditionally accepted by the Congress. What’s more, Independent Harshwardhan Patil, whose presence was an irritant to the NCP, was dropped.

An NCP leader said had the Congress not taken Harshavardhan Patil, there would not have been a deadlock in the first place. During the last five years, when Patil was a Cabinet member in the erstwhile Shiv Sena-BJP Government, he had launcheda vilification campaign against Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit.

Ever since the formation of the Cabinet, the NCP took objection to its jumbo size. It’s main objection was the inclusion of Chaturvedi, Harshavardhan Patil and Madhu Chavan. At one stage, the standoff took a serious turn with all the NCP members in the Ministry boycotting the first Cabinet meeting. However, both parties later agreed to prune the Cabinet.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had obtained resignations from all the 61 Cabinet members and while submitting the list of Cabinet members along with their portfolios to Governor P C Alexander on Sunday, six names were dropped from the list, a senior official said.

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While Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has retained the key portfolios of Urban Development, Cooperation, General Administration, Information and Public Relations, for the first time, Irrigation and Public Works Department have been bifurcated. A separate department has been created for the projects under the Krishna ValleyDevelopment Corporation as well as projects in the Konkan region, while there will be separate Cabinet ministers for public sector enterprises under the Public Works Department.

Padamsingh Patil has been entrusted with the Irrigation and departments, while Ajit Pawar, nephew of Sharad Pawar has been allotted the bifurcated Irrigation department. As declared earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal has been allotted Home and Tourism departments, while Surupsinh Naik returns to his original department of Forest and Environment. Madhukar Pichad, who was relieved of the Tribal Development portfolio in the wake of Gowari tragedy at Nagpur five years ago, has been allocated the same department.

Among the Ministers of State, both Manikrao Thakre and Kripashankar Singh have been allotted Home portfolio. While Thakre will be in charge of the rural parts, Kripashankar Singh will look after the urban areas. Anil Deshmukh has retained his portfolio of School Education and Information and PublicRelations.

Labour leader Sulekha Kumbhare will be the Minister of state for Water Supply and Sanitation, Nawab Malik will be in charge of the Housing department. Anees Ahmad, a former national swimming champion, will be Minister of State for Higher and Technical Education, Prakash Awade will be Minister of State for Textiles.