Jharkhand CM keeps home; Rameshwar Oraon made finance minister

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday kept departments of Home, Jail, Personnel, Administrative Reforms & Raj Bhasha among others, as he distributed portfolios among the ministers.

Soren, working president of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), also kept departments of Cabinet Secretariat & Vigilance and other portfolios not allocated to any minister, a notification issued by the Secretariat of Cabinet and Vigilance department said here.

Rameshwar Oraon of the Congress got Planning-cum- Finance, Commercial Taxes, Food, Public Distribution & Consumer Affairs departments.

Alamgir Alam, also a Congress MLA, was given the departments of the Parliamentary Affairs, Rural Development Department (along with Rural Works, Panchayati Raj & NREP- Special Division), the notification said.

Satyanand Bhokta, the lone RJD member in the cabinet, has been given the departments of Labour, Employment & Training.

Champai Soren has been allotted the Scheduled Tribes, the Scheduled Caste & Backward Class Welfare and Transport departments.

Haji Hussain Ansari has been made minister of Minority Welfare and Registration departments.

Joba Manjhi is the new Women, Child Development & Social Security department minister.

Jagarnath Mahato has become the minister of School Education & Literacy, Excise & Prohibition departments.

Mithilesh Kumar Thakur has taken over as the minister of Drinking Water & Sanitation.

Besides Mahato and Thakur who became ministers for the first time, Soren, Ansari and Manjhi were JMM leaders.

Congress MLA Banna Gupta has been allotted the departments of Health, Medical Education & Family Welfare and Disaster Management.

Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Co-operative departments have been allotted to Badal Patralekh who is also from the Congress.

Seven of the 11 ministers were sworn-in on Tuesday.

The JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government assumed power in the state on December 29 last year, ousting the BJP- led regime.