Goa: Parrikar picks newbies in first cabinet expansion

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday inducted six more ministers in his Cabinet, including four legislators from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Governor K Sankarnarayanan administered the oath of office to all the members of Legislative Assembly in a ceremony held at Raj Bhavan in the evening.

The new entrants are Ramesh Tawadkar, Mahadev Naik, Dilip Parulekar and Milind Naik (all BJP), Deepak Dhavalikar (Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party) and Avertano Furtado (Independent).

Todays is the first cabinet expansion carried out by Parrikar since he was sworn in as chief minister on March 9 after a landslide victory by his party in the March 3 polls.

In the first induction, he had sworn in six ministers out of whom state forest, environment and tourism minister Mathany Saldanha died recently due to cardiac arrest. Parrikar said that one ministerial berth was still lying vacant and decision on it will be taken only by month end.

The chief minister said that the newly anointed ministers will be distributed portfolios by Tuesday. All legislators, who took the oath of secrecy, are being inducted for the first time in any state cabinet.

Except one, all are two or three timers in the state legislative Assembly.

Independent MLA Avertan Furtado, who emerged as a giant killer defeating Congress heavyweight Churchill Alemao at the hustings, managed to get the ministerial berth even  though he is the first timer in Assembly as well.

Parrikar said that the new inductees would be initially entrusted with two portfolios and will be given the additional charge of another department after six months once they get a grip on the affairs of their assigned departments.