Naveen reshuffles ministry, five new minister inducted, three dropped

Debi Mishra stripped off higher education, gets forest

By Debadas Pradhan/www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar, May 10: In a reshuffle exercise, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday inducted five legislators as new ministers to his Cabinet and dropped three senior ministers. One of the state ministers – Ms Anjali Behera – was also elevated to Cabinet rank.

The legislators sworn-in as new Cabinet ministers at a function held at the Raj Bhawan here are Lal Bihari Himrika, Pradip Maharathy, Maheswar Mohanty, Usha Devi and Niranjan Pujari.

Mr Himrika was given scheduled caste and scheduled tribe development portfolio while Pradip Maharathy was given agriculture. Similarly Maheswar Mohanty was entrusted panchayati raj department while Usha Devi was given women and child development portfolio. Niranjan Pujari got food and civil supplies.

Slight readjustments were made into the portfolio of a few ministers. Sarada Nayak – who was holding food and civil supplies – was given urban development while higher education was taken away from Debi Prasad Mishra. Mr Mishra got forest department.

Earlier on Monday, the chief minister had sprung a surprise by dropping three ministers from his Cabinet. They included agriculture minister Dr Damodar Rout, sports and youth affairs minister Praveen Bhanjadeo and scheduled caste and scheduled tribe development minister Bijaya Ranjan Singh Bariha.

Later talking to the newspersons at the Raj Bhawan, the chief minister described the induction of new ministers into the council of ministers as a “routine” affair.

In fact, the chief minister effected a reshuffle in his council of ministers after completion of two years of his office in the third term. In his second term also, the chief minister had also gone for the reshuffle after two years.

Mr Patnaik said those inducted into the Ministry were experienced party leaders and hoped that they would work hard to the satisfaction of the people of Orissa. The new ministers, he said, would be allocated portfolios soon.

Sources said the newly sworn-in ministers will be distributed portfolios later in the evening.

The state politics have warmed up following dropping of the senior leader Dr Damodar Rout.

During Naveen’s second term, Dr Rout – who was then holding panchayati raj portfolio – was also shunted out from the council of ministers after two years. The veteran leader, while reacting to his exclusion, dropped hints that he was dropped as he did not bow to pressures from some influential circles in the party forum.

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