Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot allocates portfolios to ministers, retains home and finance

Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday allocated portfolios to ministers of his expanded cabinet, retaining home and finance. Twelve new ministers were inducted and three ministers of state were elevated to cabinet rank. The 15 ministers were sworn in on Sunday. From the old cabinet – Pratap Singh Khachariyawas was allocated food and civil supplies, Shanti Dhariwal retained UDH and parliamentary affairs, Lal Chand Kataria retained agriculture and Pramod Jain Bhaya retained mines and petroleum. BD Kalla and Parsadi Lal Meena were allocated education and health respectively. The new ministers who got portfolios in the cabinet rank include Hemaram Choudhary (forest), Mahesh Joshi (PHED), Ramlal Jat (revenue), Ramesh Meena (panchayati raj and rural development), Vishvendra Singh (toursim and civil aviation), Govindram Meghwal (disaster management and relief), and Shakuntala Rawat (industries). Singh and Meena were sacked last year from the Rajasthan Cabinet, and among them, Singh got back his old portfolio of tourism. Mamta Bhupesh was allocated women and child development, Bhajan Lal PWD, Tikaram Jully social justice and empowerment, as they were elevated to cabinet rank from minister of state.