By IANS
Raipur : Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh re-inducted Amar Agrawal, a known critic of the government, to his council of ministers and took in another face while dropping a senior minister in a minor expansion of the ministry Monday.
Agrawal, who had resigned as finance minister in January over differences with Singh, was sworn in as cabinet minister while Satyanand Rathia was made minister of state (with independent charge) at a function at the Raj Bhawan here.
The chief minister dropped Nankiram Kanwar.
Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers.The number of ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is now 13.
Rathia has made it to the council of ministers in place of Kanwar, whose exclusion has surprised many, as he was a person with a clean image.
Raman Singh, who described the expansion as "a chance to young faces", gave the urban administration, health and family welfare, medical education and commercial taxes portfolios to Agrawal, while Rathia was put in charged of the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Minority Welfare.