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| J&K CABINET GETS A LITTLE BIGGER WITH EXPANSION | | NOW 22 MINISTERS, 3 MORE TO BE INDUCTED LATER | |
Srinagar, Aug 29, : The slim cabinet in Jammu and Kashmir got a little bigger when the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday expanded his council of ministers with nine new ministers.One minister of state from Congress quota was elevated to the rank of cabinet minister.
At a ceremony held here at Raj Bhavan the first expansion of Azad's government –after he took over as the Chief Minister in November last year,Governor S K Sinha, administered oath of office and secrecy to Dilawar Mir (PDP), Gulchain Singh Charak (Cong) and Jugal Kishore Sharma (Cong) as cabinet ministers.
Among the three, Singh is the only one to be elevated to Cabinet rank after previously having been a Minister of State (MoS) in the Azad government with Independent charge. The new Ministers of State are Javed Mustafa Mir, Peer Mohammad Hussain, Manjit Singh, Mohammad Khalil Bandh (all from PDP), Ramesh Chandra Sharma, Prem Sagar Aziz and Aijaz Ahmad Khan (from Congress).
In the eyes of Political analysts expansion should be seen as a shock to Abdul Gani Wakil of Congress and rebel PDP leader Ghulam Hassan Mir. Women and Kashmiri Pandits also did not get the representation.
Four of the ministers administered the oath of office today have been inducted into the council for the first time.
About the expansion of the cabinet Mr Azad informed three more ministers would be inducted at an appropriate time. "You will come to know about that" he quipped. With the bill to reduce the number of ministers to 20 percent passed last year the state can have only 25 ministers against 87 member house. At the time of swearing-in last November, Azad had inducted 12 ministers - 10 of cabinet rank and two MoS with independent charge. With today's expansion, the strength of the Jammu and Kashmir council of ministers has gone up to 22.
Besides Azad, host of dignitaries including former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Chairman Legislative Council Abdur Rasheed Dar, Assembly speaker Tara Chand, National Conference president Omar Abdullah and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti were present at the function. |
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