Mamata allocates portfolios to council of ministers

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday allocated portfolios to her newly sworn-in council of ministers, keeping to herself nine departments, including Home, Land and Land Reforms.

Her other departments are Information and Cultural Affairs, Health and Family Welfare, Agriculture, Hill Affairs, Minority Affairs and Madrasa Education, Personnel and Administrative Reforms and Power.

Besides Banerjee, 35 ministers from Trinamool Congress and two from the Congress took oath on Friday. While both the Congress members of legislative assembly Manas Bhuniya and Abu Hena, hold Cabinet ranks, four Trinamool legislators have been made Ministers of State.

Economist and former Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry General Secretary Amit Mitra was allocated the departments of Finance and Excise, while Banerjee's close associate Partha Chatterjee was allocated Commerce and Industries, Public Enterprises, Industrial Reconstruction, Parliamentary Affairs and Information Technology.

Trinamool Congress state president Subrata Bakshi was allocated Public Works Department and Transport, while former Chief Secretary Manish Gupta, who defeated former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in Jadavpur seat was given charge of the Development and Planning department.

Former Kolkata Mayor and Trinamool Congress vice- president Subrata Mukherjee was given charge of Public Health Engineering. Trinamool minority leader Abdul Karim Chowdhury was given charge of the Mass Education Extension and Library Services department.

Theatre personality and new Trinamool entrant Bratya Basu, who defeated Communist Party of India-Marxist heavyweight Goutam Deb in Dum Dum, was allocated the important portfolio of Higher Education, while former Joint Director of Central Bureau of Investigation Upendra Nath Biswas, one of Banerjee's non-politician 'trumpcards', was given Backward Classes Welfare department.

Retired Calcutta High Court Judge Noore Alam Chiowdhury who won from the Murarai seat on a Trinamool Congress ticket, was given Animal Resources Development.

Another Trinamool minority leader Javed Khan was given the Disaster Management, Fire and Emergency Services and Civil Defence. Banerjee's close aide Firhad Hakim got charge of the important Municipal Affairs and Urban Development department.

Party MLA from Singur Rabindranath Bhattacharjee was given the School Education department, while former Congress MLA Sabitri Mitra, who won from the Manikchak seat on a Trinamool ticket, got the Women and Child Development and Social Welfare department.

A former Naxalite leader Purnendu Basu, who joined the Trinamool Congress in the midst of the Singur movement, was given Labour. West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Manas Bhuniya was allocated the departments of Irrigation and Waterways, Micro and Small Scale Enterprises and Textiles.

Congress Legislature Party leader Abu Hena was given the Fisheries, Food Processing Industries and Horticulture departments. Before finalising the portfolios, Banerjee held a
meeting till late in the night with senior party leaders at the state secretariat.

Senior party leader Jyotipriya Mullick was allocated the Food and Civil Supplies department, Shanti Ram Mahato Self- Help Group and Self Employment and former Indian Police Service officer Hyder Aziz Safwi Cooperation and Inland Water Transport.

These are the other Cabinet rank portfolios: Moloy Ghatak (Law, Judicial), Rachpal Singh (Tourism), Hiten Burman (Forests), Goutam Deb (North Bengal Development), Shankar Chakravarty (Non-conventional energy sources, Correctional Administration).

Rabi Ranjan Chattopadhyay (Technical Education and Training, Science and Technology, Bio-Technology), Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar (Environment), Ujjal Biswas (Youth Services), Shyamaprasad Mukherjee (Housing), Sukumar Hansda (Paschimanchal Development Affairs).

 Soumen Mahapatra (Water Ressources Investigation and Development), Arup Roy (Agriculture Marketing) and Chandranath Sinha (Panchayat and Rural Development).