Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inducted 21 Ministers, including 13 Cabinet Ministers, while reconstituting the Council of Ministers in his fifth term on June 5.
Governor Ganeshi Lal administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new Ministers in the presence of Mr. Patnaik and senior party functionaries at the Lokseba Bhawan here.
In the complete revamp, 11 Ministers, including six holding Cabinet berths, were dropped. Senior Ministers Pratap Jena, Arun Kumar Sahoo, Sushanta Singh and Bikram Keshari Arukha lost their Cabinet berths. Seven MLAs took oath as Ministers for the first time in their career.
Though the names of two former Ministers — Mr. Jena and Dibya Shankar Mishra — were linked to murder charges, Mr. Patnaik did not immediately drop them following attacks from Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress but was waiting for an opportune moment to sack them.
Mr. Patnaik increased women’s representation from two in the last Cabinet to five. Usha Devi, senior MLA from Chikiti constituency, and Pramilla Mallick, MLA from Binjharpur, have returned to the Cabinet while Tukuni Sahu held on to her Cabinet berth.
Rita Sahu, MLA of Bijepur constituency in Bargarh district, and Basanti Hembram, Karanjia MLA from Mayurbhanj, are the other two women who have been made Ministers for the first time.
Rajendra Dholakia, Nuapada MLA, made his debut as a Cabinet Minister. Ashok Chandra Panda, former Minister of State (independent) in the Science and Technology Department, Jagannath Sarka, Minister of State with independent charge for ST and SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes department in the last Cabinet, were promoted to Cabinet berth.
Of the eight Ministers of State (independent) inducted, six were new faces. Sameer Ranjan Das, who was Minister of State (independent charge) for School and Mass Education, was retained.
Surjya Narayan Patro, who resigned from the Speaker’s post, was speculated to be inducted however, his name did not figure in the list. Incidentally, 12 of the 30 districts did not have any representation in the new Ministry.
Later, the Governor approved Mr. Patnaik’s advice on allocation of departments to the new Ministers. Some of the Ministers, who were retained, continued in their departments. Niranjan Pujari remained Finance Minister. Those who retained their previous departments included Prafulla Kumar Mallick (Steel and Mines), Naba Kisore Das (Health and Family Welfare), Ashok Chandra Panda, (Science and Technology, Social Security and Empower of Persons with Disability) and Sameer Ranjan Dash (School and Mass Education).
Ms. Pramilla Mallick got the department of Revenue and Disaster Management while Ranendra Pratap Swain would head Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment. Ms. Devi has been allotted Housing and Urban Development department and Pradip Kumar Amat will handle two major departments such as Forest and Environment and Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water.
