The newly-inducted junior ministers in the Centre on Sunday expressed their "resolve" to work towards realising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'New India' vision.
Bureaucrat-turned-politician Alphons Kannanthanam, who has been given the independent charge of tourism, said he looks forward to bring in his experience as an IAS in his latest innings.
"It is a great feeling," he told reporters. The 1979 batch officer said he was in Bengaluru on Saturday when the Prime Minister's Office directed him to fly back to New Delhi.
"It was in the evening that the Prime Minister informed me about the decision," he said.
Former Mumbai top cop Satyapal Singh, who has also been inducted in the council of ministers, said he was determined to work hard to fulfil Modi's 'New India' vision and will focus on tackling issues like poverty and casteism.
He has been made a Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development and MoS in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
More From This Section
Former Uttar Pradesh minister Shiv Pratap Shukla, a party veteran, said he will try to live up to Modi's expectations.
Sixty-five-year-old Shukla, who hails from Gorakhpur, the citadel of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, will be a minister of state in the Ministry of Finance.