Pushkar Singh Dhami retains 21 depts, gives finance to new face in cabinet

Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s cabinet has eight ministers including three new faces.

Updated on: Mar 29, 2022, 23:47:26 IST

By Neeraj Santoshi

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DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday allotted portfolios to the ministers in his cabinet while keeping the charge of 21 departments with him.

Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has kept 21 departments with him including the home portfolio. (PTI)

Chief minister Dhami’s portfolios include home, civil aviation, prisons, civil defence, excise, Ayush, environment protection and climate change, labour, industrial development and mining, disaster management and rehabilitation, home guard, revenue and general administration.

Satpal Maharaj has been given charge of the public works department, tourism, Panchayati raj, culture, religious affairs and flood control.

Subodh Uniyal has been given charge of forests and technical education. In the previous government, the portfolio of forests was with Harak Singh Rawat, who later switched over to the Congress.

Ganesh Joshi has got the responsibility of agriculture, rural development and Sainik Welfare. In the previous government agriculture department was with Subodh Uniyal.

Dhan Singh Rawat has been given charge of health, higher education, school education and cooperatives, while Rekha Arya has been given the charge of women empowerment and child development, food supplies and consumer affairs and sports and youth welfare.

Prem Chand Aggarwal, one of three new faces in the cabinet, has been given charge of finance, urban development, parliamentary affairs, census and housing.

Saurabh Bahuguna, another new face in the cabinet, has been given charge of animal husbandry, fisheries, skill development, protocol and sugarcane development and sugar trade.

Chandan Ramdas, the third new face in the cabinet, has been given the charge of transport, social welfare, minority affairs, and micro, small and medium industries

Chief minister Dhami and eight cabinet ministers were administered the oath by Uttarakhand governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh on Wednesday.

Out of eight, five ministers-- Satpal Maharaj, Dhan Singh Rawat, Rekha Arya, Ganesh Joshi and Subodh Uniyal-- were part of the previous cabinet as well. The other three--Chandan Ramdas, Premchand Agarwal and Saurabh Bahuguna-- are new faces.

In Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has retained charge of 34 departments while in Punjab, chief minister Bhagwant Mann holds 27 departments.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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