Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s new ministry, which was sworn in on Sunday, has 13 Cabinet ministers and eight Ministers of State (MoS), which include seven new faces and five women.
Governor Ganeshi Lal administered the oath of office to the 21 new ministers at a special ceremony in the new convention centre of Lok Seva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar. In a first, the state Governor arrived at the Lok Seva Bhawan for the oath-taking as swearing-in ceremonies are usually held at the Raj Bhawan.
Jagannath Saraka, a known tribal leader, was the first to be sworn-in as he is named after Lord Jagannath, BJD sources said.
While 19 ministers took the oath in Odia, Usha Devi and Rohit Pujari took the oath in English.
There are seven new faces in the ministry, including Cabinet Minister Rajendra Dholakia.
Five — Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Pratap Keshari Deb, Pramila Mallick, Pradip Kumar Amat and Usha Devi — have made a comeback.
Twelve ministers who were dropped include five powerful leaders — Law and Panchayati Raj Minister Pratap Jena, Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo, Minister of State (Home) Dibya Shankar Mishra, Commerce and Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera and Labour & Employees State Insurance Minister Sushanta Singh.
On Saturday, all ministers in the Naveen Patnaik government were asked to resign, paving the way for Sunday’s reshuffle. Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro also put in his papers. His family, however, said he quit on health grounds.
The reshuffle comes days after the Naveen Patnaik government completed three years of its fifth term in office on May 29.
Cabinet Ministers
>> Jagannath Saraka
>> Niranjan Pujari
>> Ranendra Pratap Swain
>> Pramila Mallick
>> Usha Devi
>> Prafulla Kumar Mallick
>> Pratap Keshari Deb
>> Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak
>> Pradip Kumar Amat
>> Nabakishore Das
>> Ashok Chandra Panda
>> Tukuni Sahu
>> Rajendra Dholakia
Ministers of State (MoS)
>> Samir Ranjan Das
>> Ashwini Patra
>> Pritiranjan Ghadai
>> Srikant Sahu
>> Tusharkanti Behera
>> Rohit Pujari
>> Rita Sahu
>> Basanti Hembram
