LUCKNOW : In a major decision to revamp the image of over three year old Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav today sacked eight ministers and divested nine others of their departments.
A Rajbhawan statement said that the governor has accepted the decision of the UP government of sacking the ministers, five cabinet and three ministers of state. The action of Akhilesh government comes in wake of the cabinet expansion slated on October 31.
The governor has allotted to the Chief Minister all the departments of the sacked ministers, as well as of those divested of their portfolios.
The cabinet ministers who have been sacked are Stamps and Registration Minister Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh, Ambika Choudhury, the Minister for Backward Welfare and Handicapped, Handloom and Silk Industry Minister Shiv Kumar Beria, Khadi and Gramyodgya minister Narad Rai, and Technical Education minister Shivakant Ojha.
The ministers of state, who have been removed are, Minister of State for Technical Education Alok Kumar Shakya, Minister of State for Primary Education Yogesh Pratap Singh and Minister of State for Independent Charge for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Export Promotion Bhagwat Sharan Gangwar.
Governor Ram Naik has also accepted the recommendation of the CM Akhilesh Yadav to take away the departments of nine ministers and convert them into ministers without any portfolio.
The ministers, all cabinet ranked, whose departments have been taken away are Health minister Ahmed Hassan, Social Welfare, SC,/ST Welfare minister Awadhesh Prasad, Horticulture and Food Processing minister Paras Nath Yadav, Primary Education minister Ram Govind Choudhury, Transport minister Durga Prasad Yadav, Home Guard minister Brahma Shanker Tripathi, Food and Supply minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya, Public Sector and Fishery minister Iqbal Mahmood and Secondary Education minister Mahboob Ali.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who was holding charge of 57 departments would now shoulder the burden of 85 departments, including those belonging to 8 ministers who had been sacked and also those taken away from nine ministers.
Party sources here said that several of the sacked ministers could be given work in the party organisation in view of the coming 2017 assembly polls.
The move of the CM, which was expected since long after the 2014 Lok Sabha election debacle, has given rise to strong speculation about the seventh expansion of the Akhilesh Yadav government on Saturday.
At present, the government has a vacancy of 14 members in the state ministry as the total strength of the council of minister stood at 46 with 19 cabinet ministers, 24 minister of states and three ministers of state with independent charge.
On Monday last, a meeting of senior SP leaders held under the chairmanship of party president Mulayam Singh Yadav had decided to go for a major revamping of the state ministry.
Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav had repeatedly questioned the act of several ministers and even expressed his annoyance in the public on the image of his son’s government.
Meanwhile, opposition leaders have questioned the SP government on the selective choice in sacking the ministers.
“There are many controversial ministers including Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, Ram Murti Singh Verma and Mahboob Ali among others, who have earned a bad name but still they continue in power, exposing that today’s act is just a cosmetic touch to confuse the masses,” alleged UP BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak.
BSP general secretary and leader of the opposition Swami Prasad Maurya, while observing that government had the prerogative to change the members of the ministry, also questioned the continuation of some tainted ministers, whose names have been dragged in corruption.
UP Congress spokesperson Amarnath Agarwal too, described the change in the cabinet as ”just an eye-wash.” (UNI)
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