Team Herald
PANJIM: The long awaited portfolios allocation was carried out on Sunday, with Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant expectedly retaining Home and Finance.
Vishwajit Rane, who retained Health and Women & Child Development portfolios and is number 2 in the cabinet, was given three other crucial ministries - Town and Country Planning, Urban Development and Forest. The TCP was among the most demanded portfolios among some sworn-in ministers.
The third most senior minister Mauvin Godinho's previously held portfolios Transport, Panchayat and Protocol were retained. Industries was an additional allocation to him.
Ravi Naik, who switched from Congress to BJP before the General Assembly polls, was given Agriculture, Handicrafts and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs while Nilesh Cabral was given the key Public Works Department (PWD) portfolio besides Legislative Affairs, Environment and Law & Judiciary, which were retained by him.
Subhash Shirodkar will hold the charge of WRD, Co-Operation and Provedoria whereas Rohan Khaunte was allotted one of the important portfolios - Tourism. The Porvorim legislator, who also joined BJP prior to the polls, will also handle IT and Printing & Stationery.
Govind Gaude was allotted Art & Culture, Sports and RDA. Atanasio Monserrate was given Revenue, Waste Management and
Labour. His MLA wife Jennifer Monserrate, excluded from the cabinet, was the minister of Revenue and Labour in the previous government. She was also holding the IT portfolio, which has been allotted to Khaunte.
Education, Power, Social Welfare, Animal Husbandry, Tribal Affairs, RND, Archives and Archaeology, Fisheries, Legal Metrology, Information Department, Captain of Ports will be looked after by CM until cabinet expansion.
The ministers were sworn in on March 28 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Union ministers while the CM had said that portfolio allocation will be done on April 4. However, a notification regarding portfolio allotment was released on April 3, a day prior to the scheduled date.