New Delhi:
The Prime Minister has written to the President recommending that the following may be appointed as members of the Union Council of Ministers and has requested that the oath of office and secrecy be administered at 5.00 pm today.
The Prime Minister has recommended the portfolios of the newly appointed Ministers may be as below:
CABINET MINISTERS: Shri V. Kishore Chandra Deo : Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj Shri Beni Prasad Verma: Steel Shri Dinesh Trivedi: Railways Shri Jairam Ramesh: Rural Development
MINISTERS OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE): Shri Srikant Jena: Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan: Environment and Forests Shri Paban Singh Ghatowar: Development of North Eastern Region Shri Gurudas Kamat: Drinking Water and Sanitation
MINISTERS OF STATE: Shri Sudip Bandyopadhyay: Health and Family Welfare Shri Charan Das Mahant: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Shri Jitendra Singh: Home Affairs Shri Milind Deora: Communications and Information Technology Shri Rajeev Shukla: Parliamentary Affairs
The Prime Minister has further recommended that the portfolios of the following Ministers may be changed as indicated below:
CABINET MINISTERS: Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh : Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Shri M. Veerappa Moily: Corporate Affairs Shri Anand Sharma: Commerce and Industry; and additional charge of Textiles Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal: Parliamentary Affairs and additional charge of Water Resources Shri Salman Khursheed: Law and Justice and additional charge of Minority Affairs
MINISTERS OF STATE: Shri E. Ahamed: External Affairs and Human Resource Development Shri V.Narayanasamy: Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; and Prime Minister's Office Shri Harish Rawat: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries; and Parliamentary Affairs Shri Mukul Roy: Shipping Shri Ashwani Kumar: Planning; Science and Technology and Earth Sciences
The Prime Minister fowarded the resignation letters of the following Ministers in the Union Council of Ministers. The resignations have been accepted.
1. Shri Dayanidhi Maran 2. Shri Murli Deora 3. Shri B.K. Handique 4. Dr. M.S. Gill 5. Shri Kanti Lal Bhuria 6. Shri A. Sai Prathap 7. Shri Arun S. Yadav