Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, late Monday night allocated portfolios to the members of her council of minister sworn in earlier during the day.
There has not been any major change in the portfolios worked out by the PDP and BJP alliance partners in 2015.
The portfolios like home, finance, revenue, law and justice and education have remained with the PDP while BJP has again got health, urban development, power, commerce and industries and public health engineering.
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While retaining home, tourism, information, estates and hospitality and protocol with herself, she has allotted Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh (BJP) departments of housing and urban development and power, which he held in the previous PDP-BJP government headed by Mehbooba’s father Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.
The senior most minister from the PDP Abdur Rehman Butt ‘Veeri’ has got public works department. He held a lightweight department of Hajj and Auqaf in the previous government and was reportedly unhappy with the assignment.
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BJP’s Choudhary Lal Singh has been shifted to forest and environment department from health and medical education department he dearly held in the previous dispensation.
Health department has gone to his party colleague Bali Bhagat, the minister for forest and social welfare in the Mufti government.
BJP’s ally Sajad Gani Lone is new social welfare minister. PDP’s Abdul Haq Khan and Ghulam Nabi Lone have retained departments of rural development and agriculture production, respectively.
Khan will, however, hold also law and justice departments. Syed Basharat Bukhari is revenue and relief minister and Choudhary Zulfkar Ali, also from PDP, has retained the consumer affairs and public distribution department. Chander Prakash Ganga of BJP has retained industries and commerce department.
Haseeb A Drabu and Syed Naeem Akhtar of the PDP are again finance and education ministers, respectively.
BJP’s Abdul Ghani Kolhi has got animal husbandry department whereas his party colleague Chering Dorjey has retained cooperative department. New entrant from BJP, Sham Lal Choudhary has got PHE and Irrigation, the department earlier held by Sukhnandan Kumar who was dropped by the BJP this time.
Imran Raza Ansari of the PDP retains information and technology and sports departments.
Among the ministers of state Aseia Naqash (PDP) is new housing and urban development minister, Sunil Kumar Sharma (BJP) has got science and technology and revenue and Farooq Andrabi Hajj and Auqaf with independent charge. BJP’s Priya Sethi has retained education whereas Zahoor Mir of the PDP has got forests and Ajay Nanda of the BJP finance and planning.
