Kolkata, Aug 3 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday carried out a major cabinet rejig, dropping four ministers and inducting eight new faces including former union minister Babul Supriyo.

Supriyo, who quit the BJP last year and joined the Trinamool after he was dropped from the Union Council of Ministers, has been made the minister in-charge of Information Technology and Electronics and Tourism.

Supriyo, along with Partha Bhowmick, Snehasis Chakraborty, Udayan Guha, Tajmool Hossain, Pradip Majumder, Satyajit Barman and Biplab Roy Chowdhury

were sworn in as ministers during the day. Besides, Birbaha Soren also took oath as she was promoted from minister of state to minister of state independent-charge.

Governor La Ganeshan administered the oath of office and secrecy to all the nine ministers at an austere and solemn ceremony in the Raj Bhavan here.

Apart from Supriyo, Bhowmick, Chakraborty, Guha and Pradip Majumder joined the cabinet, while Biplab Roy Chowdhury was made a minister of state with independent charge. Hossain and Barman ar the news ministers of state.

Among those dropped were minister of state for education Paresh Adhikari, who had faced CBI grilling in connection with the alleged School Service Commission (SSC) scam, while his daughter was sacked from her job as school teacher by the Calcutta High Court for irregularities related to her appointment. She also had to return the entire salary she received since her appointment. Satyajit Barman has been allocated Adhikari’s portfolio.

The other ministers who got the axe were Soumen Mahapatra, Ratna De Nag and Humayun Kabir.

The ministerial reshuffle was carried out days after Banerjee dismissed heavyweight minister Partha Chatterjee following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged SSC scam.

Sashi Panja has been given the portfolios of Industry, Commerce and Enterprises and Public Enterprises and lndusrial Reconstruction, so long handled by Chatterjee. PanJA would also retain her existing portfolio of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare.

Seasoned politician and so long power minister Sovandeb Chatterjee is the new minister for parliamentary affairs, a department that was also managed by Chatterjee till his removal.

Another heavyweight minister Firhad Hakim lost his portfolios of Housing and Transport, retaining only Urban Development and Municipal Affairs.

Aroop Biswas, a close confidante of the chief minister, has been made the minister for power and housing while holding on to the Department of Youth Services and Sports.

Mamata Banerjee’s 43-member ministry now has 24 cabinet ministers and 19 ministers of state, of whom ten have independent charges.

Banerjee earlier said several departments were currently functioning without any dedicated minister due to which the reshuffle was necessary.

Two vacancies were created by the demise of Subrata Mukherjee and Sadhan Pande.

Birbaha Hansda is now the Minister of State, Department of Self-Help Group and Self Employment (lndependent Charge ) and Department of Forests,

Snehasis Chakraborty has been given the portfolio of transport, while Partha Bhowmick got Irrigation and Waterways.

Udayan Guha is the new Minister of North Bengal Development Department, while Pradeep Majumdar would manage Panchayats and Rural Development.

Biplab Roy Chowdhury was Minister of State, Department of Fisheries (lndependent Charge), Tajmul Hossaias Minister of State, Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Textiles.

Satyajit Barman was Minister of State, Department of School Education.(UNI)