The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab on Monday inducted five MLAs as ministers in the state cabinet, including Hardeep Singh Mundian, Barinder Kumar Goyal, Tarunpreet Singh Sond, Dr Ravjot Singh and Mohinder Bhagat.
State Governor Gulab Chand Kataria administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers during a swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh. All the new ministers took oath in Punjabi.
According to the details, this is the fourth cabinet reshuffle of the 30-month-old AAP government in the Punjab.
With the new rejig, the strength of the Mann-led Cabinet is 16, including the chief minister.
New cabinet:
In the new cabinet reshuffle, CM Bhagwant Mann keeps eight ministries including Home Affairs & Justice, Legal & Legislative Affairs, Sports & Youth Services.
Aman Arora will head five ministries, including New & Renewable Energy sources, Employment generation, & Training.
Harpal Singh Cheema will head four ministries: Finance, Planning, Excise & Taxation.
Tarunpreet Singh Sond has four ministries to head including Tourism & Culture Affairs, Industry and Commerce, Rural Development & Panchayats.
Gurmeet Singh Khudian has been given charge of three ministries including Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.
Mohinder Bhagat to head three including Defence Services Welfare.
Dr Baljit Kaur has been charged to head two ministries including Social Justice Empowerment & Minorities, and Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal to head NRI affairs and Administrative reforms.
Dr Balbir has been given the charge of Health & Family Welfare, Medical education & research, while Harjot Singh Bains will lead Technical education and industrial Training, Information & Public Relations and two other departments.
Dr Ravjot Singh is the new Parliamentary Affairs minister.
Barinder Kumar Goyal has been given three ministries including Mines & Geology.
Ministers dropped:
Earlier, CM Mann dropped four ministers from his Punjab Cabinet. they include: Chetan Singh Jouramajra (public relations, defence services and horticulture), Anmol Gagan Maan (tourism and investment promotion), Balkar Singh (local government and parliamentary affairs) and Bram Shanker Jimpa (revenue).