 "Himachal CM Jai Ram Thakur")
The newly-inducted ministers of the Himachal Pradesh cabinet were allotted portfolios on Wednesday and the youngest of them, former chief minister Virbhadra Singh's son Vikramaditya Singh, was given the charge of the public works, youth and sports departments.
Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar distributed the portfolios on the advice of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. The eldest member of the cabinet, Dhani Ram Shandil from Solan, was given the charge of the health and family welfare, social justice and empowerment and labour and employment departments.
Shandil was the social justice and empowerment minister of the hill state from 2012 to 2017 as well.
Chander Kumar, the only minister from Kangra district, has got the agriculture and animal husbandry departments, while Harshwardhan Chauhan from Sirmaur has been given the industries, parliamentary affairs and ayush portfolios. Both Kumar and Chauhan are six-time MLAs.
Jagat Singh Negi from the tribal Kinnaur district has been given the departments of revenue, horticulture and tribal development, while former chief minister Thakur Ram Lal's grandson Rohit Thakur from Shimla district has got the higher, elementary, technical education and vocational and industrial training portfolios.
The "rana" of the erstwhile Koti state, Anirudh Singh from Shimla district, will be the rural development and panchayati raj minister.
The oath-taking ceremony of the newly-inducted ministers (three from Shimla and one each from Solan, Kangra, Sirmaur and Kinnaur districts) was held on January 8.
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Sukhu has retained the finance, general administration, home, planning, personnel portfolios and all other departments not allotted to any minister, while there is no change in the departments of Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, who was allotted the jal shakti, transport and language and arts and culture departments.
Shimla district, with seven MLAs, has been given a lion's share in the cabinet with three ministers, while Bilaspur, Mandi, Kullu and Lahaul and Spiti districts are unrepresented. With 10 MLAs, Kangra has got only one cabinet berth. Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Pathania is from Bhatiyyat in Chamba district.
Besides the deputy speaker's post, three berths are still vacant as the maximum number of ministers, including the chief minister, cannot exceed 12.
The Congress won 40 of the 68 Assembly seats in the polls held in November -- 10 from Kangra, seven from Shimla, four each from Una, Solan and Hamirpur, three from Sirmaur, two each from Chamba and Kullu, and one each from Mandi, Bilaspur, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts -- and all the regions have to be represented in the cabinet.
Of the nine ministers, five are from the Shimla parliamentary constituency, two from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha segment and one each from the Kangra and Mandi parliamentary constituencies.
Ahead of the cabinet expansion, the chief minister had also appointed six chief parliamentary secretaries.
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