the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant allocated portfolios to the four newly inducted ministers - Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, Michael Lobo, Filipe Neri Rodrigues and Jennifer Monserrate - on Monday afternoon, saving them the blushes of having to respond to members’ queries related to them on day one of Goa legislative assembly’s monsoon session. Kavlekar has been allocated most of the portfolios held by his sacked predecessor Vijai Sardesai - Town and Country Planning, Agriculture, Archives and Archeology and Factories and Boilers. Forest which Sardesai also held however has been retained by the Chief Minister.
Jennifer has got Revenue, IT, Labour and Employment, portfolios previously held by another sacked minister - Independent Rohan Khaunte. The third Congress rebel but now a BJP MLA to be rewarded with a cabinet berth, Filipe Neri Rodrigues has got Water Resources, Fisheries and Legal Metrology, which were previously held by the third sacked minister Vinoda Paliencar.
Portfolios held by the fourth sacked minister - Jayesh Salgaonkar - have gone to Michael Lobo, namely Rural Development Agency, Ports and Science and Technology. A new department of Waste Management has also been allocated to Lobo. Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho has been allotted Housing but Sawant removed the Animal Husbandry department from him and retained it with himself.
Sawant, meanwhile, also effected minor changes in portfolios held by some of the other ministers, taking away Law and Judiciary from Health Minister Vishwajit Rane and allotting it to Power Minister Nilesh Cabral. Rane has been compensated with Skill Development.
Cabral in turn has lost the Science and Technology portfolio to Lobo.
