Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday expanded her Cabinet for the first time in her second term, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Four party veterans who have been inducted into the Cabinet are Tapas Roy, Sujit Bose, Nirmal Maji and Ratna Ghosh. They were sworn in as Ministers of State by Governor K N Tripathi at Raj Bhavan in the presence of the Chief Minister and her Cabinet colleagues.
Roy will be the Minister of State with Independent charge for Planning and Statistics along with the Department of Parliamentary Affairs.
Sujit Bose, MLA from Salt Lake, will be Minister of State with Independent charge for Fire Services. The ministry fell vacant after Sovan Chatterjee resigned some time ago. Firhad Hakim, Mayor and Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister used to look after the department as a stop-gap arrangement.
Nirmal Maji, president of West Bengal Medical Association and chairman, Rogikalyan Samity of Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, became the Minister of State for the Labour Department. Ratna Ghosh has been appointed as the Minister of State of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Chandrima Bhattacharya has become Minister of State Housing (Independent charge). She is also the Minister of State for the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Land and Land Reforms and Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation and Department of Tribal Development.
When Mamata Banerjee had formed her government for the second time in 2016 there were 44 ministers. Four ministers — Abani Joardar, Chudamani Mahato, James Kujur and Sovan Chatterjee — were later dropped.
The expansion of the ministry to 44 will result in speeding up the administrative work. It may be said that Banerjee wants to complete all the pending work before the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. She has held more than 480 administrative review meetings in the districts since she came to power in 2011 which have helped to resolve several local issues.