PDP Gets Key Portfolios in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Keeps Home

Major portfolios like Home, Finance and Education were today allocated to ministers of the Peoples Democratic Party by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed who will hold charge of the Home ministry.

The allocation of portfolios in the PDP-BJP coalition was announced this evening, two days after the 25-member ministry was sworn-in.

Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Nirmal Singh has been given the Power, Housing and Urban Development while Lal Singh, who was recently inducted into the party, will be the Health Minister.

PDP’s Haseeb A Drabu, who was the chief negotiator from the party over government formation with the BJP, will be the new Finance Minister besides holding the portfolios of Labour, Employment and Culture.

The party’s chief spokesperson Naeem Akhter has been given charge of Education whereas his party colleague Javed Mustafa Mir will be the new Revenue Minister.

Separatist-turned-politician Sajad Lone, who was accommodated in the ministry from the BJP quota, will look after Science and Technology and Animal Husbandry.

Veteran PDP leader Abdul Rehman Veeri will be the new Horticulture and Haj and Auqaf minister, while Basharat Ahmed Bukhari, a former radio broadcaster, will look after Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs as well as Relief and Rehabilitation.

BJP’s Chander Prakash, Bali Bhagat and Sukhnandan Kumar will be in charge of Industries and Commerce, Social Welfare and Forest and Public Health Engineering respectively.

Businessman-turned-politician Altaf Bukhari, a PDP lawmaker, will be in charge of Public Works, Floriculture and Parks while another MLA of the party and noted Shia leader Imran Ansari will look after Information and Technology and Youth and Sports.

Mr Sayeed was sworn in as Chief Minister on Sunday along with 24 others which included 13 members from his PDP and 11 members of the BJP, People’s Conference and independent MLAs.

The rest of the departments that have not been assigned to any of the ministers shall remain with the Chief Minister, a notification issued by Chief Secretary Iqbal Khandey said.

PDP’s Chowdhury Zulfikar Ali has been given Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution and Tribal Affairs while Abdul Haq Khan, the party’s two-time MLA, will look after Rural Development.

Among the Ministers of State, Independent MLA Chering Dorjay gets independent charge of Cooperative besides being the Minister of State of Ladakh Affairs.

The lone Muslim face of the BJP who won from Jammu region, Abdul Ghani Kohli has been assigned the charge of Transport with Independent charge besides looking after Rural Development and Horticulture.

Abdul Majid Paddar of PDP will look after Public Health Engineering (PHE), Irrigation and Flood Control, Animal Husbandry and Forest while BJP’s Sunil Kumar Sharma gets Public Works and Revenue departments.

Mohammad Ashraf Mir, who defeated former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah from Sonawar, has been assigned the charge of Industries and Commerce, Power Development and Housing and Urban Development Departments.

Priya Sethi has been assigned the charge of Information, Education and Culture Departments.

Pawan Kumar Gupta has been assigned the charge of Finance and Information Technology.

Asiya Naqash has been assigned the charge of Health, Social Welfare and Transport Departments.