Nitish Kumar allocates investment portfolio, retains residential and general management matters

Nitish Kumar on Friday expanded the size of his cabinet with the appointment of 21 new ministers.

Patna:

A day after expanding the size of his cabinet, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday allotted portfolios to ministers in the NDA government.

Nitish Kumar has retained the portfolio of home and general administration ministries, while Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary has been given the portfolio of finance and commerce ministries.

Additional deputy chief minister Vijay Sinha, also from the BJP, has been appointed to take charge of road construction, mining and geology and arts, culture and youth, a notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariat on Saturday said department.

Nitish Kumar on Friday expanded the less than two-month-old Cabinet with the appointment of 21 new ministers. With the appointment of 21 new ministers, Nitish Kumar’s number of ministers has increased to 30, just six short of the 36 ministers stipulated in the state’s constitution.

According to the notification, Nitish Kumar has also retained key departments such as Cabinet Secretariat, Elections, Vigilance, General Management and “all other duties not assigned to others”.

Prem Kumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been assigned to the cooperation and environment, forest and climate change ministry.

Nitish’s trusted lieutenant Bijendra Prasad Yadav has been assigned to the energy and planning and development departments. Senior JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary has been appointed in charge of water resources and parliamentary affairs departments. Shrawan Kumar of JD(U) has been appointed to head the rural development department.

Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Santosh Kumar Suman has been posted in the information technology, minor water resources and disaster management departments. Independent MP Sumit Kumar Singh has been appointed to the ministry of science and technology.

Senior BJP leader Renu Devi has been appointed as the animal and fisheries resources department.

Other ministers include: Mangal Pandey (Health and Agriculture), Neeraj Kumar Singh (Public Health Engineering Department), Ashok Choudhary (Rural Engineering), Lesi Singh (Food and Consumer Protection), Madan Sahni (Social Welfare), Nitish Mishra (Social Welfare) Industry and Tourism), Nitin Nabin (Urban Development, Housing and Law).

Dilip Kuma Jaiswal (Taxation and Land Reforms), Maheshwar Hazari (Information and Public Relations Department), Sheila Kumari (Transportation), Sunil Kumar (Education), Janak Ram (SC and ST Welfare), Hari Sahni (BC and EBC Welfare), Jayant Raj (Building Construction). PTI PKD RG

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