Effecting a minor reshuffle, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday inducted three new Ministers in his Cabinet.
Senior BJD MLAs Bikram Keshari Arukha, Sudam Marndi and Sarada Prasad Nayak took oath as Cabinet Ministers right here at a swearing in ceremony held at State Convention Centre in Lok Seva Bhawan.
Governor Professor Ganeshi Lal administered the oath of workplace and secrecy to the brand new ministers in presence of the Chief Minister.
Several ministers, MPs, MLAs, senior authorities officers had been current on the swearing in ceremony.
Arukha, Marndi and Nayak had earlier served as ministers below Patnaik authorities.
Arukha held a number of positions since 2008, together with authorities chief whip, Speaker and minister of Rural Development, Law, Forest, Environment and Climate Change, Parliamentary Affairs, Information & Public Relations, Cooperation and Public Enterprises.
Similarly, Marndi had earlier served as Minister of State for Sports & Youth Services, ST & SC Development (tribal welfare) and Revenue & Disaster Management. This time, Marndi has been elevated to cupboard rank.
Nayak served as MoS for Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare, Housing & Urban Development and Excise in between 2009 to 2012.
Notably, Speaker B.Okay. Arukha together with two controversial ministers Samir Ranjan Dash (School and Mass Education) and Srikanta Sahu (Labour and Employees’ State Insurance) had resigned from their positions on May 12.
Besides, former Health Minister Naba Kishore Das was murdered on January 29 this yr, creating one other emptiness within the cupboard.
The Odisha Council of Ministers can have 22 Ministers together with the Chief Minister. With the induction of three new ministers, the emptiness within the cupboard crammed up.
According to sources, the Chief Minister may make modifications within the portfolios of some ministers quickly.
However, who would be the subsequent Speaker of the State Assembly has not but been cleared. The possible names for Speaker’s posts making the rounds are: Prafulla Samal, Debi Prasad Mishra, Amar Prasad Satpathy, Snehangini Chhuria and Badri Narayan Patra.
Naveen Patnaik had effected a whole reshuffle of his Cabinet final time in June 2022. So, this was the second reshuffle of his Cabinet on this time period.