By TCN News,
New Delhi: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, in consultation with Congress and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi, made some changes in his council of ministers. Minister of State for Minority Affairs and Corporate Affairs Salman Khurshid has been promoted to the Cabinet as Water Resources Minister with additional charge of Minority Affairs.
Muslim League leader and Minister of State for Railways E Ahamed has been moved to Foreign Ministry in the same capacity.
Salman Khursheed speeking at TCN event on 4th Dec 2010 in New Delhi
The PM Singh has promoted three ministers to cabinet rank — Praful Patel, Shriprakash Jaiswal besides Salman Khurshid.
Patel, a member of key ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), gets heavy industries and public enterprises. Congress veteran Khurshid is water resources minister with additional charge of minority affairs and Jaiswal is coal minister.
New ministers of state with independent charge are Ajay Maken for youth affairs and sports, Beni Prasad Verma for steel and K.V. Thomas for consumer affairs and public distribution.
S. Jaipal Reddy is new minister for petroleum and natural gas. Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi gets additional charge of civil aviation. M.S. Gill moved from sports to statistics and programme implementation and Kamal Nath is new urban development minister.