Nitish Kumar Distributes Portfolios, Retains Home, General Administration

A day after the expansion of his cabinet, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday allocated portfolios to the ministers of the NDA government.

While Nitish Kumar retained the Home and General Administration departments, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary has been given Finance and Commercial department portfolios.

Another Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sinha, who is also from the BJP, has been given the Road Construction, Mines and Geology and Art, Culture & Youth departments, a notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariat department said on Saturday.

Nitish Kumar on Friday expanded his cabinet, which is less than two months old, by inducting 21 new ministers. With the induction of 21 new ministers, the strength of the Nitish Kumar ministry rose to 30, just six short of the constitutional limit of 36 for the state.

According to the notification, Nitish Kumar has also retained key departments like cabinet secretariat, election, vigilance, general administration and "all other portfolios not allocated to anyone else".

While BJP's Prem Kumar has been allocated Cooperative and Environment, Forest and Climate Change departments.

Nitish's trusted lieutenant Bijendra Prasad Yadav has been allocated Energy and Planning & Development departments. Senior JD (U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary has been given charge of the Water Resources and Parliamentary Affairs departments. JD(U)'s Shrawan Kumar has been given the responsibility of the Rural Development department.

Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Santosh Kumar Suman, has been given Information Technology, Minor Water Resources and Disaster Management departments. Independent MLA Sumit Kumar Singh has been given the portfolio of the Science and Technology department.

Senior BJP leader Renu Devi has been given the Animal & Fisheries Resources department.

Portfolios of other ministers are: Mangal Pandey (Health and Agriculture), Neeraj Kumar Singh (Public Health Engineering Department), Ashok Choudhary (Rural Works), Lesi Singh (Food and Consumer Protection), Madan Sahni (Social Welfare), Nitish Mishra (Industry and Tourism), Nitin Nabin (Urban Development & Housing and Law).

Dilip Kuma Jaiswal (Revenue and Land Reforms), Maheshwar Hazari (Information & Public Relations department), Sheila Kumari (Transport), Sunil Kumar (Education), Janak Ram (SC & ST Welfare), Hari Sahni (BC & EBC Welfare), Jayant Raj (Building Construction). PTI PKD RG

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