DyCM gets charge of Forest, I&C
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Apr 17: Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tonight took resignations from its remaining eight Ministers including Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh to facilitate reshuffle in the Council of Ministry and change of portfolios, an exercise which is expected to be undertaken during the next few days. For the purpose, BJP national general secretary, Ram Madhav, party’s pointman on Jammu and Kashmir, is reaching here by the weekend for consultations with senior party leaders to finalize the exercise.
BJP’s Alliance partner, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is also expected to carry out reshuffle in the portfolios of its Ministers but might leave one of the vacancies, caused by the ouster of former Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu, unfilled.
“There is no threat to the PDP-BJP coalition Government. Resignations by the BJP Ministers have nothing to do with the CBI probe demand into Rassana rape-cum-murder. They have been taken just to facilitate reshuffle among the BJP Ministers that was necessitated after the resignations of two Cabinet Ministers-Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga recently,” BJP insiders told the Excelsior.
They said with two vacancies already in the BJP quota, two to three more Ministers would be dropped. A total of four to five new faces would be inducted in which Doda and Udhampur districts could get representation in the Council of Ministry, they added and said the portfolios of the BJP Ministers would also be changed.
Sources said Ram Madhav was expected to visit Jammu by the weekend to discuss names of party leaders for induction and exclusion from the Council of Ministry with senior J&K BJP leaders. Later, he will brief BJP president Amit Shah before finalizing date of the reshuffle.
Sources said since the BJP Ministers have only given resignations to their State party chief, they will continue as the Ministers till new reshuffle. Resignations of only those Ministers will be forwarded to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for acceptance, who have to be dropped from the Ministry.
BJP insiders confirmed that two to three sitting Ministers could be dropped, which will take their number of vacancies to four-five, leading to induction of new faces.
The PDP is expected to confine its reshuffle up to portfolios only and might not fill the vacancy caused by the removal of Dr Haseeb Drabu from the Cabinet. Education Minister Syed Altaf Ahmad Bukhari has been holding additional charge of the Finance Ministry. There can be some more changes in the portfolios of some of the PDP Ministers.
As per the PDP-BJP agreement, PDP would have 14 Ministers including the Chief Minister and BJP 11 Ministers. The State can have maximum of 25 Ministers only. Presently, PDP has 13 Ministers, BJP eight and People’s Conference one. Social Welfare Minister Sajjad Lone of People’s Conference is included in BJP’s 11. BJP has two vacancies and PDP one.
The BJP’s strength in the Cabinet after the resignations of Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, has come down to just 5 as against 11 of its Alliance partner, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
BJP has been left with eight Ministers-five in Cabinet rank and three Ministers of State, one of them (Sunil Sharma) with Independent Charge.
Sources said the BJP planned to balance district and caste equations during induction of two new Ministers in Jammu and Kashmir. Ganga represented Samba district and Lal Singh Kathua. However, Dr Nirmal Singh, the Deputy Chief Minister, is also MLA from Billawar in Kathua district.
Presently, Udhampur, Doda, Ramban, Samba and Poonch districts i.e. five out of 10 districts of Jammu region, have no representation in the Cabinet. Even Kishtwar and Reasi districts too have just one each Minister of State (Sunil Sharma and Ajay Nanda respectively) and there is no Cabinet Minister from these two hilly and far-off districts.
Jammu is the only district from where BJP has two Cabinet Ministers including Health and Medical Education Bali Bhagat and PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Choudhary. Two other BJP Cabinet Ministers included Abdul Ghani Kohli, Animal and Sheep Husbandry, from Rajouri district and Chering Dorjey from Leh district.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti assigned the charge of Forest, Ecology and Environment and Industry and Commerce, previously held by BJP leaders Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga respectively, to Deputy chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh.
Significantly, Dr Singh, who already holds charge of two prestigious Departments, would now be the Minister Incharge of four Departments.
An official order issued by the Chief Minister this evening said that charge of Forest, Ecology and Environment, held by Lal Singh and Industry and Commerce, held by Chander Prakash Ganga, has been assigned to Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh, in addition to the portfolios already assigned to him.
Dr Nirmal Singh now will be holding the charge of Power Development Department, Housing and Urban Development Department, Forest, Ecology and Environment and Industry and Commerce.
The charge of Finance Ministry is already held by Education Minister and PDP leader Syed Altaf Ahmad Bukhari since the ouster of Dr Haseeb Drabu from the Cabinet on his Kashmir remarks.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is holding charge of a number of Departments including Home, General Administration, Planning, Information and Broadcasting, Hospitality and Protocol, Civil Aviation, Culture etc.
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