PM axes 7 ministers; inducts 8 new faces

New Delhi, Jul 12 (PTI) In a substantive yet incomplete
exercise, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday dropped
seven ministers, inducted V Kishore Chandra Deo and seven
other new faces, and elevated three others including Jairam
Ramesh from whom Environment and Forests has been taken away.
In the much-talked about revamping of his ministry, Singh
did not touch the 'big four' -- Finance, Home, Defence and
External Affairs -- but shifted M Veerappa Moily from Law to
Corporate Affairs and brought Salman Khursheed in his place.
Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi has been
elevated to the Cabinet rank and given the Railways portfolio
left vacant by Mamata Banerjee after she became eastern Indian
state West Bengal Chief Minister.
Beni Prasad Verma becomes a Cabinet Minister for Steel, a
portfolio he earlier held as Minister of State with
Independent charge.
The other new faces in the Council of Ministers are
Jayanthi Natarajan who gets Environment and Forests, Dibrugarh
MP Paban Singh Ghatowar (DONER), Trinamool Congress leader
Sudip Bandopadhyaya (Health and Family Welfare), Alwar MP
Jitendra Singh (Home), Milind Deora (Communication and IT) and
Rajiv Shukla (Parliamentary Affairs).
Ministers who have been dropped from the Cabinet are M S
Gill (Statistics and Programme Implementation), B K Handique
(DONER), Kantilal Bhuria (Tribal Affairs), Murli Deora
(Corporate Affairs) and Dayanidhi Maran (Textiles). While
Maran had resigned last week in the wake of his being named in
the 2G scam, Deora had offered his resignation citing old age
and had reportedly sought a berth for his son Milind.
The new ministers would be sworn in at a function at the
Rashtrapati Bhawan this evening after which the strength of
the Council will go up by one to 68. While there were eight
additions, seven have been axed.