Akhilesh allots portfolios to new ministers

Lucknow, Feb 9 (IANS) Two days after the first cabinet expansion of the 11-month-old Samajwadi Party-led Uttar Pradesh government, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Saturday night allotted portfolios to new ministers and reshuffled the work of some colleagues.

Cabinet minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh ‘Raja Bhaiyya’ lost the charge of prisons, which went to party spokesman Rajendra Chowdhary, sowrn in as a cabinet minister.

Senior minister Raja Aridaman Singh was divested of the transport portfolio and was moved to the stamp, registration and civil defence department.

Om Prakash Singh was made the tourism minister while ministers like Parasnath Yadav, Durga Prasad Yadav, Raj Kishore Singh, Iqbal Mahmood, Abhishek Mishra, Ram Pal Rajvanshi also lost some departments and the chief minister relieved himself of the additional energy sources portfolio.

“The ministers who have lost some departments were eased out owing to their lackluster performance,” a Samajwadi Party functionary told IANS.

IANS 2013-02-09 23:36:03