Parrikar will allot additional portfolios only after Dussehra: Minister

Ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is likely to allocate additional portfolios to ministers in the state's BJP-led coalition cabinet only after Dussehra, a Minister said on Friday.

Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai was one of the many cabinet ministers who met Parrikar at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi where the former Defence Minister is being treated for advanced pancreatic cancer.

"At the meeting today, the Chief Minister informed us about his decision to allot additional portfolios after Dussehra which falls on October 19. It is his prerogative," Sardesai told IANS over phone from Delhi just after the meeting at the hospital concluded.

Sardesai also said that while Parrikar would be keeping key portfolios to himself, he would allocate some other portfolios which he is holding charge of to other ministers.

Party sources said that Parrikar was likely to keep key portfolios like Finance, Home and General Administration.

"The list may also include Mining, Education and Civil Aviation," a senior Bharatiya Janata Party official said.

The meeting at AIIMS came amid growing criticism of the BJP-led coalition government in Goa, which the Opposition as well as civil society has accused of being non-functional, with the Chief Minister in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New York and now in Delhi for the last seven months.

The Congress has also demanded several times in meetings with Goa Governor Mridula Sinha for the state government's dismissal.

--IANS

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