Agartala, Aug 31: Finally, the wait is over. Three new members of the Tripura cabinet were sworn-in on Tuesday, taking the strength from 8 to 11.
Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers- Ramprasad Paul, Bhagaban Das and Sushanta Chowdhury at Raj Bhavan, Agartala.
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Verma, Union Minister of State from Tripura Pratima Bhowmik, members of the Tripura council of ministers, many of the MLAs and top officials were present in the swearing-in ceremony.
In the meantime, MLA Sudip Roy Barman, MLA Ashis Saha and MLA Ashis Das skipped the swearing-in ceremony while some other MLAs, mostly from Leftist camp, and leaders from opposition parties were also absent.
The Chief Minister congratulated all the new ministers and encouraged them to work for an overall development of the state.
At the end of the oath taking ceremony, Deb expressed hope saying that the new ministers would work with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Viswas’ to ensure an all-round development. He said the BJP-IPFT government was committed to the state’s development.
Speaking to the media soon after taking the oath, Chowdhury said that he would work dedicatedly towards achieving the goal of the state government.
All the three new ministers thanked Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and the party leaders for entrusting them with the new responsibilities.
This is for the first time, after the BJP-IPFT government came to power in March 2018, the cabinet was expanded. With the induction of three new ministers, the total size of the cabinet now increased to eleven from eight. The much-awaited decision on the cabinet expansion came on Monday night following several rounds of discussions in presence of some of the central BJP leaders.
After the expansion, the ten ministers in Deb’s cabinet are- Jishnu Dev Verma (Deputy Chief Minister), N.C. Debbarma, Ratanlal Nath, Pranajit Singha Roy, Manoj Kanti Deb, Mevar Mumar Jamatia, Santana Chakma, Ramprasad Paul, Bhagaban Das and Sushanta Chowdhury.
With expansion of the cabinet, while the Chief Minister has distributed portfolios to the three new cabinet members, some changes have also been made in the portfolios of the existing ministers.
According to the official notification, Ram Prasad Paul has been given the portfolio of Home (Jail, Fire Service and Emergency), OBC Welfare, Minorities Welfare and Cooperation).
Sushanta Chowdhury, one of the youngest members of the state cabinet, has been given the portfolios of Information and Cultural Affairs (ICA) department, PWD (DWS) and Youth Affairs and Sports.
Bhagaban Das, who secured his cabinet berth from Unakoti district, has been entrusted with the portfolios of Animal Resources Development, Labour and SC Welfare departments.
Meanwhile, some changes have been made in the portfolios of some of the existing ministers. Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Verma has been given the Planning and Coordination (including statistics) department in addition to Finance, Power, Rural Development (including Panchayat) and Science, Technology and Environment.
IPFT minister N.C. Debbarma has been relieved from the Fisheries department. Now, he has been given the portfolio of the Forest department, in addition to the Revenue department.
Ratanlal Nath will continue to hold the portfolios of Education (Higher), Education (School) and Law (including PA) departments.
There is no change in the portfolios of Pranajit Singha Roy also. He will continue to look after Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Tourism and Transport departments.
Manoj Kanti Deb has been given an important portfolio- Industries and Commerce (excluding Handloom, Handicrafts and Sericulture and IT) apart from the existing portfolio of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department. However, he has been relieved from the Youth Affairs and Sports department.
Mevar Kumar Jamatia will now hold the portfolio of Industries and Commerce (Handloom, Handicrafts and Sericulture) and Fisheries in addition to Tribal Welfare. He has been relieved from the Forest department.
A significant change came in the portfolios of Santana Chakma. She has now been given the Urban Development department along with the existing Social Welfare and Social Education department. She has been relieved from the charge of the Animal Resources Development department.
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb kept Home (excluding Fire Service and Emergency Services and Jail), Health and Family Welfare, PWD (excluding DWS), Industries and Commerce (IT), General Administration and Election departments with him. Besides, he will also look after all policies and any other departments which are not allocated to any minister.