Guwahati: A 14-member new ministry in Assam led by chief minister Tarun Gogoi took oath on Friday.
Governor PB Acharyya administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at a function
held in Durbar Hall of the Raj Bhawan here in the morning.
While six of the minis-ters from the previous ministry have been retained by Gogoi who has inducted
eight new faces this time. Among the new ministers, 11 have been accorded Cabinet status while the rest three will be ministers of state with Independent charge. The portfolios of the new ministers will be distributed later while the chief minister Gogoi is expe-cted to several important departments, like finance, home, political, power and commerce and investment etc.
Though the total number of the ministers in Assam which has 126 MLAs in its Assembly, can be 19 including the CM, four ministerial berths has been left unfilled by Gogoi apparently to tackle any resentment that may arise within the legislature party after the ministry reshuffle.
The old faces retained in the ministry are Ajanta Neog, Dr Nazrul Islam, Rakibul Hussain, Ajit Singh, Basan-ta Das and Khorsing Engti.
Among the new names in the ministry included veteran party men Dr Bhumidhar Barman and Sarat Barkataky , both of them were ministers under Gogoi earlier. The other new faces in the ministry are Atuwa Munda, Chandan Sarkar, Bismita Gogoi, Sumitra Doley Patir, Girindra Mullick and Sukur Ali.While eleven have been sworn in as cabinet ministers, three have been sworn in as ministers of state.
The ministers of state are: Bismita Gogoi, Sumitra Doley Patir, Girindra Mallik.
Prominent among those from the previous ministry who have not figure in Gogoi’s new team included,
Power, Education and Industry minister Pradyut Bardoloi, Revenue and Labour Minister Prithbi.
The prominent ministers of the last council of ministers not included in the new team are Gautam Roy (Public Health Engineering), Pradyut Bordoloi (Indus-tries & Commerce, Power, Public Enterprises and Education), Nilamoni Sen Deka (Agriculture, Horti-culture & Food Processing, Parliamentary Affairs and Irrigation) and Prithibi Majhi (Revenue & Disaster Management, Labour & Employment and Tea Tribes Welfare). Tanka Bahadur Rai (Judicial, Legislative, Pension and Public Grievance), Akon Bora (Social Welfare and Jail), Pranati Phukan (Handloom, Textiles) and Rajib Lochan Pegu (Water Resources and WPT&BC-excluding BTAD areas) are the other ministers who have been dropped this time. On Jan 19, all the 14 members of the council of ministers except Gogoi had resigned from their posts paving the way for the much-awaited reshuffle. (with inputs from PTI )
