New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Wednesday approved Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's proposal to allocate new departments to ministers Kailash Gahlot and Rajkumar Anand.
Kejriwal had sent a proposal to allot eight portfolios to Gahlot and 10 portfolios to Anand. The move was necessitated after Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and minister Satyendar Jain resigned from their respective positions in the government. Sisodia was arrested on February 26 in the liquor policy scam case while Jain was arrested on May 30 last year in a money laundering case and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail.
Kejriwal has entrusted both the ministers with major portfolios including Home, Health and Education, besides the departments already held by the two ministers. In a notification by the Delhi government, Gahlot has been given the responsibility of Finance, Planning, Public Works Department, Power, Home, Urban Development, Irrigation and Flood Control and Water departments, which is in addition to the departments he is currently holding.
Anand has been assigned the Education portfolio (previously held by Sisodia), Land and Building, Vigilance (also held by Sisodia), Services, Tourism, Art, Culture & Language, Labour, Employment, Health (previously held by Jain, then Sisodia after Jain's arrest), and Industries.
Meanwhile, in a major rejig in the Delhi cabinet necessitated by the resignations of Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, chief minister Kejriwal has sent the names of Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena to be elevated as ministers, sources said today. Sisodia was earlier arrested by the CBI in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
Sisodia was arrested on Sunday in an ongoing investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the new excise policy of the Delhi government. The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain Sisodia's plea challenging his arrest in the excise policy case. Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Monday sent him to CBI custody for five days.
The CBI had also quizzed AAP leader Jain in Tihar Jail in connection with alleged corruption in the implementation of the now-junked Delhi Excise policy. Jain is currently lodged in judicial custody in connection with a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Recently, the CBI and ED made several arrests for alleged corruption in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy. (ANI)
