KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerhee reshuffled her ministry after dropping three ministers from her cabinet last week. She later said this was done to reduce the workload of some of the ministers. While the reason behind the removal of ministers Churamani Mahato, James Kujur and Abani Joardar is officially unknown. Insiders of the Trinamool Congress view this as a fallout of the party's relatively poor show in some areas of the state.
Senior cabinet minister Subrata Mukherjee, who was holding the important Panchayat and Rural Development portfolio, besides Public Health Engineering (PHE), will now be in charge of only the first one, an official notification said. He has also been given the Water Resources Investigation and Development portfolio, which was previously held by Soumen Mahapatra. Irrigation Minister Rajib Banerjee has been shifted the Backward Class Welfare department, while Mahapatra has been given the key Irrigation and Waterways portfolio.
Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee has been stripped off the Environment portfolio, which has been given to Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari as an additional charge. Moloy Ghatak, who has been given the additional charge of PHE, will also hold the portfolios of Law and Labour, the notification said. Minister of State Chandrima Bhattacharya retained her Health and Family Welfare and Land and Land Reforms departments, besides being given independent charge of Personnel and Administrative Reforms and e-governance.
