The Prime Minister has written to the President recommending that the following may be appointed as members of the Union Council of Ministers and has requested that the oath of office and secrecy be administered at 5.00pm today.

CABINET MINISTERS :

1. Shri V. Kishore Chandra Deo

2. Shri Beni Prasad Verma

3. Shri Dinesh Trivedi

4. Shri Jairam Ramesh

MINISTERS OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) :

5. Shri Srikant Jena

6. Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan

7. Shri Paban Singh Ghatowar

8. Shri Gurudas Kamat

MINISTERS OF STATE :

9. Shri Sudip Bandyopadhyay

10. Shri Charan Das Mahant

11. Shri Jitendra Singh

12. Shri Milind Deora

13. Shri Rajeev Shukla

The Prime Minister has recommended the portfolios of the newly appointed Ministers may be as below:

CABINET MINISTERS :

Shri V. Kishore Chandra Deo : Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj

Shri Beni Prasad Verma : Steel

Shri Dinesh Trivedi : Railways

Shri Jairam Ramesh : Rural Development

MINISTERS OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) :

Shri Srikant Jena : Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers

Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan : Environment and Forests

Shri Paban Singh Ghatowar : Development of North Eastern Region

Shri Gurudas Kamat : Drinking Water and Sanitation

MINISTERS OF STATE :

Shri Sudip Bandyopadhyay : Health and Family Welfare

Shri Charan Das Mahant : Agriculture and Food Processing Industries

Shri Jitendra Singh : Home Affairs

Shri Milind Deora : Communications and Information Technology

Shri Rajeev Shukla : Parliamentary Affairs

The Prime Minister has further recommended that the portfolios of the following Ministers may be changed as indicated below:

CABINET MINISTERS :

Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh : Science and Technology and Earth Sciences

Shri M. Veerappa Moily : Corporate Affairs

Shri Anand Sharma : Commerce and Industry; and additional charge of Textiles

Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal : Parliamentary Affairs and additional charge of Water Resources

Shri Salman Khursheed : Law and Justice and additional charge of Minority Affairs

MINISTERS OF STATE :

Shri E. Ahamed : External Affairs and Human Resource Development

Shri V.Narayanasamy : Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; and Prime Minister's Office

Shri Harish Rawat : Agriculture and Food Processing Industries; and Parliamentary Affairs

Shri Mukul Roy : Shipping

Shri Ashwani Kumar : Planning; Science and Technology and Earth Sciences

The Prime Minister has fowarded the resignation letters of the following Ministers in the Union Council of Ministers with the recommendation that they may be accepted.

1. Shri Dayanidhi Maran

2. Shri Murli Deora

3. Shri B.K. Handique

4. Dr. M.S. Gill

5. Shri Kanti Lal Bhuria

6. Shri A. Sai Prathap

7. Shri Arun S. Yadav