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Journalism of Courage
At least half-dozen ministers in the Democratic Front government will have little else to do but ride white Ambassadors, occupy Mantralaya chambers and stay in official bungalows. After the allocation of portfolios by Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, at least seven members of his jumbo team of 69 are left with such minor departments that they need not attend office even for six months.
Take the case of Jaidutt Kshirsagar (NCP), the new Tourism Minister, or his junior in the department, Chandrakant Chhajed (Congress). It is a minor department, but the compulsion of number forced the Congress-NCP managers to appoint a separate minister for it.
Similar are the cases of Cabinet Ministers Babasaheb Dhabekar (Water Conservation) and Laxman Dhoble (Higher Education). Water Conservation was always tagged to Agriculture, while Higher and Technical Education was a joint department. To accommodate Dhoble, it was split into two — Higher Education and Technical Education. The latter will remain with Dilip Walse-Patil.
For Vasant Purke, parts of three departments were stitched together to make his Cabinet portfolio. He will be Minister for Employment/Self-Employment, Welfare of Nomadic, Denotified Tribes and OBCs.
Few among the Ministers of State will have to head tiny departments like Water Conservation (Manohar Naik), Medical Education (Suresh Shetty) and Employment Guarantee Scheme (Ramdas Bodkhe).
Shinde told party workers at Congress Bhawan today that if Congress comes to power on its own, the number of ministers will not exceed 25. The CM said he was always for a small ministry but had to form a jumbo Cabinet to keep coalition partners happy.
‘‘You can call this compulsion of coalition politics. More than work, it is the status of minister which will keep them happy,’’ said a senior minister.
