Rane8217;s cuts Joshi8217;s men to size

Two of the senior ministers in Joshi government 8211; Sudhir Joshi School Education and Pramod Navalkar Culture Affairs, Information and Public Relations and Protocol were keen in getting their portfolios changed 8211; the former wanted Revenue and latter was also keen for a key portfolio.

Sudhir Joshi has been allotted the same department, while Navalkar has been shifted from Information and Public Relations Department in view of his inability to build up the image of the alliance government through the media.

Forest andEnvironment Minister, Chandrakant Khaire, a known supporter of Joshi has been given the department of Youth Welfare, Sports and Earthquake Rehabilitation, while Cooperation Minister, Jaiprakash Mundhada, has been relieved of his department and given the responsibility of Rehabilitation, Marketing and Textiles. Cooperation Department has been now entrusted to Diwakar Raote, who was earlier the Transport Minister.

Gajanan Kirtikar, a new face, will be the Minister for Transport, Employment and Information and Public Relations, and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil will be the Minister for Agriculture, Water Conservation, Dairy Development and Fisheries.

The portfolios of Industries, Law and Judiciary Minister Leeladhar Dake, Labour Minister Sabir Shaikh, Social Welfare Minister Babanrao Gholap, Housing Minister Sureshdada Jain has not been changed. The BJP ministers have not been affected by the reshuffle and most of them have retained their old portfolios.

Sudhir Mungantiwar and Vishnu Sawara have been allottedTourism, Consumer Protection and Tribal Development departments respectively. The reshuffle has also affected the ministers of state. Ramdas Kadam, who was earlier looking after the Food and Civil Supplies department, has now been given the Home portfilio. Prabhakar More will be an addition in the same department.

New faces like Manisha Nimkar, Ramesh Gajbe, Badamrao Pandit, Uttam Khandare and Bharmu Patil have been allotted the departments of Textiles and Tourism, Trade, Commerce and Welfare of Backward Classes, Rural Development, Sports and Youth Welfare and Employment Guarantee Scheme respectively, while Udayan Raje Bhosale has been given the Revenue department.

The departments of other ministers of state are : Harshavardhan Patil Agriculture, Horticulture and Water Conservation, Anil Deshmukh School Education, Higher and Technical Education, Cultural Affairs, Ravindra Mane Urban Development and General Administration, Shivajirao Naik PWD, Tukaram Dighole Energy, Raj Purohit Employment,Housing, Urban Land Ceiling, Babasaheb Dhabekar Finance, Planning and Transport, Vijaykumar Gavit Health and Medical Education, Arjun Khotkar Water Supply, Vinod Gudadhe Patil Forest and Environment, Prataprao Jadhav Irrigation, Dilip Sopal Law, Excise, Vinayak Korde Dairy Development, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry and Vithal Girkar Social, Tribal and Women Welfare.

Though the ministers of state are apparently happy with their portfolios, it is doubtful whether Rane will give them adequate powers to function as ministers in a real sense. During Manohar Joshi8217;s tenure, most of them were unhappy, since they had no powers as prescribed under the Rules of Business.

Under the Rules of Business, it is the responsibility of the Chief Minister to allocate work between a Cabinet minister and his deputy. However, Joshi had completely ignored this aspect, as a result, while the Cabinet ministers became more powerful, the ministers of state, turned out to be ornamental cabinet members.

Theministers of state feel that they should be allowed to participate in the Cabinet meetings. Joshi never allowed them to take part in the Cabinet and instead, he used to convene a meeting of the council of ministers, in which most insignificant subjects formed the part of the agenda. 8220;We want the government to continue the practice adopted by the Congress government. Then, all the Ministers of state enjoyed specific powers and they were also permitted to participate in the Cabinet meeting,8221; a Minister of state told The Indian Express.