Complete list of Cabinet ministers and portfolios

Union council of ministers

CABINET
Manmohan Singh	Prime Minister
Pranab Mukherjee	Finance
Sharad Pawar	Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution
A K Antony	Defence
P. Chidambaram	Home Affairs
Mamata Banerjee	Railways
S M Krishna	External Affairs
Ghulam Nabi Azad	Health and Family Welfare
Kapil Sibal	Human Resource Development
Veerappa Moily	Law and Justice
Ambika Soni	Information and Broadcasting
Anand Sharma	Commerce and Industry
S Jaipal Reddy	Urban Development
Murli Deora	Petroleum and Natural Gas
Kumari Selja	Housing, Urban and Poverty Alleviation, Tourism
Sushil Kumar Shinde	Power
Vilasrao Deshmukh	Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.
Kamal Nath	Surface Transport and Highways
Virbhadra Singh	Steel
A Raja	IT and Communication
Dayanidhi Maran	Textiles
Meira Kumar	Water Resources
C P Joshi	Rural Development and Panchayati Raj
M S Gill	Youth Affairs and Sports
M Azhagiri	Chemicals and Fertilizers
Mallikarjun Kharge	Labour and Employment
Farooq Abdullah	New and Renewable Energy.
Subodh Kant Sahay	Food Processing Industries
G K Vasan	Shipping
Pawan Kumar Bansal	Parliamentary Affairs
Vyalar Ravi	Overseas Indian Affairs
B K Handique	Mines, Development of North-Eastern Region
Mukul Wasnik	Social Justice and Empowerment
Kantilal Bhuria	Tribal Affairs
MINISTERS OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE)
Praful Patel	Civil Aviation
Prithviraj Chavan	Science and Technology; Earth Sciences and MoS in the PMO; Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Parliamentary Affairs.
Sriprakash Jaiswal	Coal; Statistics and Programme Implementation
Salman Khursheed	Corporate Affairs; Minority Affairs
Dinsha J Patel	Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Krishna Tirath	Women and Child Development
Jairam Ramesh	Environment and Forests
MINISTERS OF STATE
Mahadev S Khandela	Road Transport and Highways
Dinesh Trivedi	Health and Family Welfare
Sisir Adhikari	Rural Development
Sultan Ahmed	Tourism
Mukul Roy	Shipping
Mohan Jatua	Information and Broadcasting
D Napoleon	Social Justice and Empowerment
Dr S Jagathrakshakan	Information and Broadcasting
S Gandhiselvan	Health and Family Welfare
Tusharbhai Chaudhary	Tribal Affairs
Sachin Pilot	Communications and IT
Arun Yadav	Youth Affairs and Sports
Pratik Patil	Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
R P N Singh	Road Transport and Highways
Shashi Tharoor	External Affairs
Vincent Pala	Water Resources
Pradeep Jain	Rural Development
Agatha Sangma	Rural Development
Ajay Maken	Home Affairs
Jitin Prasada	Petroleum and Natural Gas
E. Ahamed	Railways
Srikant Jena	Chemicals and Fertilizers
Mullappally Ramachandran	Home Affairs
V Narayansamy	Planning, Parliamentary Affairs
Jyotiraditya Scindia	Commerce and Industry
D Purandeswari	Human Resource Development
K H Muniyappa	Railways
Panabaka Lakshmi	Textiles
Namo Narain Meena	Finance
M M. Pallam Raju	Defence
Saugata Ray	Urban Development
SS Palanimanickam	Finance
A Sai Prathap	Steel
Preneet Kaur	External Affairs
Gurudas Kamath	IT and Communications
Harish Rawat	Labour and Employment
K V Thomas	Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

59 Ministers will take Oath on Thursday

59 Ministers will take Oath on Thursday

The Prime Minister has recommended the following names to the President for inclusion in his Council Of Ministers.

Cabinet Ministers:

1. Virbhadra Singh
2. Vilasrao Deshmukh
3. Farooq Abdullah
4. Dayanidhi Maran
5. A Raja
6. Mallikarjun Kharge
7. Kumari Selja
8. Subodh Kant Sahay
9. M S Gill
10. G K Vasan
11. Pawan Kumar Bansal
12. Mukul Wasnik
13. Kantilal Bhuria
14. M K Azhagiri

Ministers of State with Independent Charge

1. Praful Patel
2. Prithviraj Chavan
3. Sriprakash Jaiswal
4. Salman Khursheed
5. Dinsha Patel
6. Jairam Ramesh
7. Krishna Tirath

Ministers of State

1. E Ahamed
2. V Narayanasamy
3. Srikant Jena
4. Mullappally Ramachandran
5. D Purandeswari
6. Panabaka Lakshmi
7. Ajay Maken
8. KH Muniyappa
9. Namo Narain Meena
10. Jyotiraditya Scindia
11. Jitin Prasada
12. A Sai Prathap
13. Gurudas Kamat
14. M M Pallam Raju
15. Mahadev Khandela
16. Harish Rawat
17. K V Thomas
18. Saugata Ray
19. Dinesh Trivedi
20. Shishir Adhikari
21. Sultan Ahmed
22. Mukul Roy
23. Mohan Jatua
24. S S Palanimanickam
25. D Napoleon
26. S Jagathrakshakan
27. S Gandhiselvan
28. Preneet Kaur
29. Sachin Pilot
30. Shashi Tharoor
31. Bharatsinh Solanki
32. Tusharbhai Chaudhary
33. Arun Yadav
34. Prateek Prakash Patil
35. R P N Singh
36. Vincent Pala
37. Pradeep Jain
38. Agatha Sangma

Identity cards to be issued to all citizens: Chidambaram

NEW DELHI, May 26: To keep a tab on terrorists often mixing with common people, the government has initiated war footing measures to ensure availability of multipurpose identity cards to all citizens by 2011.

“The national population register will be ready by 2011 and the multipurpose national identity cards (MNIC) will be issued to all residents in 2011,” Union home minister P Chidambaram said.
The project aims at providing a unique national identity number to each person in the national population register, he said here on Monday evening after assuming office. However, keeping in view the complexities involved in both the process and technology, a pilot project has been under implementation on an experimental basis covering a population of 30.95 lakhs in selected areas in 12 states and one union territory. “The coastal districts and in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the work has already started,” he said. The identity card is a smart card having a microprocessor chip. This is a secure card for which recommendation was made by the technical committee constituted by the government having representatives from National Informatics Centre, IIT Kanpur, Bharat Electronics Limited, Indian Telephone Industries Limited, Electronics Corporation of India Limited, Intelligence Bureau and others. Sources said the implementation of the scheme in the entire country would be based in the light of the experiences gained and lessons learnt from the pilot project. The identity smart cards are being issued to citizens of 18 years and more under the pilot project. The decision to implement the pilot project in the coastal areas has been taken keeping in view the aspects relating to enhancement of security in coastal areas following the Mumbai terror attack as the terrorists came using the sea route. The creation of national population register might usher in the era of register-based census in the country and would help in future to have the estimates of population on a real time basis by combining it with the system of registration of births and deaths in the country. Expecting the population of the country to reach 1.20 billion by 2011, the government is also taking precaution to identify difficult areas and difficult populations in advance so that no person in any household is left unrecorded and no area is left untouched. (PTI)

Karunanidhi urges PM for Lankan Tamils’ welfare

Chennai, May 26: Though any interference in the internal affairs of another country has to be avoided, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to consider Sri Lanka as a “special case” and intervene to help the Tamils.

“Though there is on one side a question of interfering in the internal affairs of a country, which would affect its sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, Sri Lanka should be treated as a special case,” Karunanidhi wrote to the prime minister.The chief minister in his letter said the draft resolution the Sri Lankan government has presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council was largely against the interests of Sri Lankan Tamils.Given this context, Karunanidhi requested Manmohan Singh to take an appropriate decision, keeping in mind the sentiments of the Sri Lankan Tamils and their welfare.

The Indian government has maintained that it cannot interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign country and the conflict in Sri Lanka was an internal affair of the island nation.The chief minister’s letter, a copy of which was released here Tuesday, comes after National Security Advisor M K Narayanan briefed him May 23 on his Sri Lankan visit.

Sri Lanka’s military action against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which was fighting for a separate Tamil state, concluded successfully with the killing of LTTE chief V Prabhakaran this month.The conflict, however, has left tens of thousands of Tamils homeless and they are living in relief camps. (IANS)

Mamata takes charge, spells out thrust areas

Kolkata, May 26: Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee, who broke convention on Tuesday to take charge of her portfolio here instead of the national capital, identified the speedy completion of eastern freight corridor as being crucial to her scheme of things.

“The eastern freight corridor between Kolkata and Ludhiana is very important and will be completed very soon,” said Banerjee, adding: “It’s very important for the development of four states - West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.”

Also, the Bihar-Howrah express train, which was renamed as Kandari Express, will be made a daily train.

“It will be made a daily train very soon as it connects Digha, an important tourist destination. Some new block stations will have to be made and once they are completed the train will be running daily,” Banerjee said.

She took charge of the ministry at the B C Roy institute at Sealdah station. Accompanying her were officials of South Eastern Railway, Eastern Railway and Kolkata Metro Railway, workers union representatives and several newly elected MPs.
Railway Board chairman S S Khurana was also present.

Banerjee said a lot of infrastructure projects would be taken up in the next five-year term and stations would be modernised.

“We will take up modernisation of lot of stations in West Bengal and will also give attention to employment generation,” said the minister.

“Railways is the lifeline of the nation. We have to ensure passenger facility and safety alongside the commercial interest of the railways as an industry.”

Banerjee added that special attention would be given to Jammu and Kashmir and the development of railways network in the state.“Though I am from Bengal, nobody should think that I am not interested in the development of other parts of India,” she said.

Urging for railway employees’ support, Banerjee said: “I consider the railways as a big family and I expect full co-operation from the employees and I am sure they will rise to the occasion and make Indian railways a hit in the world.”

A large number of supporters, assembled at the station, greeted the minister with slogans like “Mamata Banerjee zindabaad” as she gave a broad outline of her plans for the state. (IANS)

Varun Gandhi 'misbehaves' with journalists

LUCKNOW: Controversy is not leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) poster boy Varun Gandhi. After hogging the limelight for his alleged anti-Muslim speeches, the young Lok Sabha MP is now caught in a row with journalists.

A group of Uttar Pradesh scribes on Thursday accused Varun Gandhi, the BJP MP from Pilibhit of "misbehaviour" and sought security from the Pilibhit district administration while covering his programmes.

About 30 journalists from different media houses submitted a memorandum at the district magistrate's office. "We have asked the district administration to provide security to media persons during programmes of Varun Gandhi," president of Pilibhit Journalist Association Mohan Kumar said.

Kumar alleged that Varun Gandhi misbehaved with some reporters on May 19 when they approached him for his comments over the BJP's poor performance in the state.

"Varun got angry and he along with his security personnel even attacked journalists of some TV news channels. Varun also damaged the camera of a TV journalist," Kumar said.

District magistrate Ajay Chauhan said he was yet to receive the memorandum. "From local newspapers I have come to know that Varun Gandhi allegedly manhandled some journalists," Chauhan said. "We will take steps accordingly after going through the memorandum," he added.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Varun-Gandhi-misbehaves-with-journalists/articleshow/4561738.cms

Mamata likely to settle for Rly ministry, five MoS berths

NEW DELHI: Having arrived in Parliament with a bloc of 20 MPs, including one from Suci tagging on, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has settled Mamata Banerjee for a single Cabinet berth, which she will keep for herself. Initially, the offer from Congress negotiators Pranab Mukherjee and Ahmed Patel was for two Cabinet and three minister of state portfolios, according to highly placed sources.

Unless there is a last moment twist, Congress has agreed to Banerjee's demand for the railway ministry, it is learnt.

The offer to Banerjee, who met Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday and was in touch with Patel and Mukherjee over phone through Thursday, was made in two packages. The first offered two Cabinet and three MoS berths while the second package offered one Cabinet and five MoS slots.

Banerjee decided to settle for the second offer since she saw a possibility of accommodating one more MP as minister.

The more important reason, however, is not unknown to those who have followed Banerjee's brand of politics. In a party that she runs single-handedly, she is apprehensive of allowing any other colleague to emerge at par with her or develop their independent relations with the higher-ups.

The probables likely to make it as ministers of state from Trinamool Congress are Saugata Ray, Dinesh Tribedi, Sultan Ahmed, Sisir Adhikari and in all probability, TMC's Rajya Sabha member Mukul Roy. While Sultan Ahmed is the Muslim face of the party, Sudip Bandopadhyay missed the bus as the TMC chief is cut up with him for refusing to be chief whip of the party in Parliament. Gobinda Nashkar, an SC MP, has been made deputy leader of the parliamentary party. Two other members, including Chaudhury Mohan Jatua, are likely to be made chairmen of standing committees that will come the TMC's way.

The ministries she is looking at are those she feels can impact the lives of the poor and the rural populace in West Bengal, with her target being the assembly polls in 2011. With that in mind, Banerjee has given her preferences for health, rural development, urban development, tourism and I&B/culture.

Her idea for not going in for "attractive" ministries is also that there would be less chances of allegations of corruption against her team before assembly polls in Bengal.

Mamata had asked for one seat more than DMK, that is a total of seven ministers including herself, as she got 19 plus one that is 20 members while DMK comes to the House with 18. But now that DMK has decided on outside support to the government, there is pressure on Mamata from her party to get more ministerial berths.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mamata-likely-to-settle-for-Rly-ministry-five-MoS-berths/articleshow/4561805.cms

Railway police withdrawn from Lalu Prasad's house

Railway police withdrawn from Lalu Prasad's house

PATNA: Now that he has ceased to be railways minister, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad has lost out on some of the trappings that go
along with the senior position. The security cover of the Railway Protection Force has been withdrawn from his Patna residence, official sources said on Tuesday.

An order to withdraw the security cover was issued to the RPF from the concerned department. An RPF official here said that the security cover to Lalu Prasad was withdrawn following an order from above. "We have to follow the order, it is our duty," he said.

The RPF security cover was removed from Lalu Prasad's 1, Anne Marg house which happens to be the official residence of his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi here.

Lalu Prasad has been accorded Z-plus security by the central home ministry due to the threat perception to him from Maoists and the Ranvir Sena, a private militia of upper caste land owners.

After the rout of his RJD in the Lok Sabha elections, Lalu Prasad has offered the Congress-led new United Progressive Alliance government his party's unconditional support. The RJD's strength has gone down from 24 MPs in the last Lok Sabha to just four this time.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Railway-police-withdrawn-from-Lalu-Prasads-house-/articleshow/4553201.cms