NEW DELHI: Prime Minister P.V Narasimha Rao has expanded his year-old Council of Ministers, with the induction of six new middle-rung ministers and affected a minor reshuffle in portfolios, bifurcating the work of the Industry Ministry and creating new departments of Wasteland Development and Non-Conventional Energy.
Of the six new entrants, five were sworn in as ministers of State and one as Deputy Minister.
While Sukh Ram, representing Himachal Pradesh, was given independent charge of the Ministry of Planning and Program Implementation and the new Department of Non-Conventional Energy, Punjab leader R.L. Bhatia will be another minister in the External Affairs Ministry.
The Prime Minister will continue to hold charge of this key ministry.
Portfolios of the other ministers of State are Krishna Sahi (Industrial Development), Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder (Tourism) Col Ram Singh (Wasteland Development under the Rural Development Ministry). Twenty-seven-year old Selja, the youngest Lok Sabha member from Haryana, is the Deputy Minister for Education and Culture.
The expansion also led to consequential changes and a minor reshuffle of the Council of Ministers. H.R. Bharadwaj, who was holding charge of Planning and Program Implementation, has been shifted to Law, an area which he looked after during the Rajiv Gandhi Government.
P J Kurien has shed Industrial Development and will now look after only Small-scale and Agro Industries. The Industry Ministry will now have three ministers of State in P,K. Thung on, Kurien and Sahi, Rao holds the industry portfolio.
P.R. Kumaramangalam will give up the Law portfolio which has been entrusted to Bharadwaj. Kumaramangalam has been given the Ministry of Science and Technology along with Parliamentary Affairs which he held earlier.
Sahi is a former Union minister and hails from Bihar. Sukh Ram, who was a Minister of State in the Rajiv Gandhi Government also, represents the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency.
Col Ram Singh is a Lok Sabha member from Mahendergarh in Haryana. He was the Speaker of the Haryana Assembly from 1979 to 1982.
The expanded Ministry now has two ministers of State for External Affairs, Bhatia and Eduardo Faleiro,
Bhatia, a veteran freedom fighter, has also been the General Secretary of the Congress, Bhatia, who represents the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency, had once survived a major militant attack on his life.
Sukhban Kaur Bhinder, wife of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Director-General P.S. Bhinder had been elected from the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency in the February elections in Punjab.
Miss Selja, the youngest member of the Lok Sabha, represents the Sirsa constituency in Haryana. She is the daughter of late former Union Minister Dalbir Singh.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by the Prime Minister, his Cabinet colleagues, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha J.K. Advani, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha S Jaipal Reddy, members of Parliament and senior civil and military officials.
Sukh Ram, Sahi and Selja took the oath in Hindi while the others did so on English.
With expansion, the states of Bihar, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, which were un presented so far, have now got representation in the Council of Ministers.
Rao has described the expansion of his Council of Ministers as a temporary addition.”
The Prime Minister made this remark during brief exchange with journalists after the swearing-in ceremony.
When a correspondent reminded Rao that the ministers had been added to the Cabinet despite his hint at a recent meeting of the National Development Council that the size of a ministry should not be large, the Prime Minister said “This is a temporary addition for the present.”
Asked if the inductions had been made to effect a balance in the Ministry, he said it was not the question of effecting a balance but a question of giving proper representation to the states.
With the addition, the strength of the 66-member Narasimha Rao Ministry has gone up to 62.
A major reshuffle of the Cabinet is expected to take place after the monsoon session.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1992
