By IANS,
Raipur : Senior tribal leader of Chhattisgarh’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Nankiram Kanwar, has been appointed the home and jails minister of the Maoist insurgency-hit state Monday.
Chief Minister Raman Singh allocated the portfolios Monday evening among the 11 ministers included five tribals, who were sworn in earlier in the day at a jampacked Police Parade Ground here.
The home department was held by Ramvichar Netam in the previous BJP regime.
Netam was reportedly reluctant to retain the portfolio in the new regime in wake of rising Maoist attacks in Chhattisgarh that have claimed over 1,100 lives in the state since 2004.
Netam has now got the panchayat and rural development department.
Raman Singh has kept three crucial portfolios – finance, energy as well as mining department.
Chhattisgarh is known as a mineral rich state and has about 20 percent of the country’s iron ore and coal reserves.
Chandrasekhar Sahu who pulled off a surprise win against state Congress chief Dhanendra Sahu, has got the agriculture portfolio.
The food and civil supplies department has been bagged by Punnulal Mohile while Brijmohan Agrawal, who won for the fifth time in a row, has got the public works department (PWD), school education and tourism.
Rajesh Munat who was industry and PWD minister in the previous Raman Singh government, has been appointed urban administration, housing and environment minister while Vikram Usendi is now the forests minister.
Amar Agrawal who scored a hat-trick from Bilaspur, retains the health portfolio.
Hemchand Yadav will look after water resources, higher education and technical education.
The youngest member of the Raman Singh government, Kedar Kashyap, has got tribal welfare department plus public health engineering (PHE) while the government’s lone woman minister, Lata Usendi, has women and child development besides the sports portfolio.