Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje today carried out a wide-ranging reshuffle of portfolios in her government, following her cabinet rejig today in which she inducted six new ministers and elevated two state ministers to cabinet rank.
Including Raje, there are 30 ministers in the council, the most the state Cabinet can have as per the 91th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003.
The Constitutional Amendment Act says the size of the council should not exceed 15 per cent of the total members in the state legislature. The state has 200 Assembly seats.
In the reshuffle, Ajay Singh was elevated as Cabinet Minister and given the 'Gopalan' portfolio which was until now held by Prabhu Lal Saini. He was also given the Cooperative portfolio.
Saini retained Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries department.
Rajendra Rathore, who was Health and Medical Education Minister, was made Panchayti Raj, Rural Development Minister and he retained his portfolio of Election and Parliamentary Affairs Minister.
Kalicharan Saraf, who was Higher and Technical Education Minister, replaced Rathore while Kiran Maheshwari was given Saraf's portfolio.
Gajendra Singh was given Forest, Environment and Youth Affairs departments, while Rajpal Singh was given Industries and Surendra Goyal PHED and Ground Water.
Rajpal, who was Urban Development and Housing (UHD) Minister, was given NRI, Government Enterprises and DMIC portfolios. Srichand Kriplani replaced Rajpal as UHD Minister.
Hem Singh Bhadana was given Rajasthan State Motor Garage, GAD, Estate, Printing and Stationary portfolios.
Baboo Lal was allotted Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Arun Chaturvedi was given Social Justice & Empowerment, Minority Affairs & Waqf, and Jaswant Yadav was given Labour & Employment, Factory & Boilers Inspection.
The State Ministers (Independent Charge) are Amra Ram (Revenue, Colonisation, Rehabilitation, Soldier Welfare); Krishnendra Kaur (Art and Culture, Archaeology and Museum, Tourism, Civil Aviation); Vasudev Devnani (Primary and Secondary Education, Language, Panchayti Raj); Rajkumar Rinwa (Devsthan), Anita Bhadel (Women and Child development); and Surendra Pal Singh (Mines).
State Ministers are Otaram (Gopalan); Pushpendra Singh (Energy, Law & Legal Affairs & Legal Consultancy Office); Dhan Singh Rawat (Panchayti Raj, Rural Development, Parliamentary Affairs and Election), Banshidhar (Medical & Health), Sushil Katara (PHED & Ground Water), and Kamsa Meghwal (Tribal Area Development).
In the reshuffle, the portfolios of Cabinet Ministers which remained unchanged are those of Gulab Chand Kataria (Home, Justice, Civil Defence, Home Guards & Disaster Management); Ram Pratap (Water Resources, Indira Gandhi Canal Project, Command Area Development & Water Utilisation), Nand Lal (Tribal Area Development); and Yunus Khan (Public Works & Transport).
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