Mamata Banerjee holds first cabinet meeting, allocates departments

"As the departments were not distributed, today's meeting was agenda-less. We just thanked and congratulated each other. Our Chief Secretary has sent a recommendation letter, where we have recommended our ministers for several departments, to the West Bengal Governor, who has the approval authority. After getting his permission, we are announcing the distribution of ministries today," Mamata Banerjee said.

Earlier in the afternoon, Mamata Banerjee along with 42 other ministers took oath at a ceremony at Kolkata's historic Red Road, in presence of West Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, a large number of VVIPs, including Bhutan's Prime Minister, Bangladesh's Industry Minister, Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Minister of State for Urban Development Babul Supriyo, Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Jammu and Kashmir's former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, UP's Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and supporters.

Protesting against alleged post-poll violence in the state, all major opposition parties from WB, including Left Front, Congress and state BJP, boycotted the event.

Excluding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, there are 29 Cabinet Ministers, 5 Ministers of State with Independent Charges and 8 Ministers of State in the newly formed West Bengal government.

Of the state Assembly's 294 seats, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress captured 211 to bring the state under the largest ever single party rule. The main opposition Left-Congress alliance managed 75 seats.

Mamata Banerjee also said to hold second cabinet meeting in Nabanna on June 17.

"We will meet here again on June 17. We have also called a meeting on June 3 in Kolkata's Town Hall from 12:30 pm., to discuss our plan of action and to adopt or decide new ideas," she added.

Meanwhile, on the first day of re-elected TMC government, an interim relief, amounting 10% on the Band Pay, has been declared for government employees, which will come into effect from July 1.

Biman Banerjee and Haider Aziz Safwi are going to be the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of West Bengal Legislative Assembly respectively.

The distribution of ministries is as follows:

Cabinet Ministers:

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee: Home Affairs, Hill Affairs, Health, Information & Cultural Affairs (I&CA), Minority Affairs and Micro & Small Scale Enterprises.  
Amit Mitra: Finance, Exice, Commerce & Industries, Public Enterprise, Industrial Reconstruction.
Pratha Chatterjee: School Education, Higher Education and Parliamentary Affairs.
Bratya Basu: Information Technology & Electronics.
Shovandeb Chatterjee: Power & Non-conventional Energy.
Subrata Mukherjee: Panchayat & Rural Development.
Shovan Chatterjee: Fire & Emergency Services, Environment and Housing.
Javed Ahmed Khan: Disaster Management and Civil Defence.
Firhad Bobby Hakim: Municipal Affairs and Urban Development.
Abani Joardar: correctional Administration.
Arup Biswas: Public Works, Sports and Youth Services.
Abdur Rezzak Mollah: Food Processing Industries & Horticulture.
Gautam Dev: Tourism.
Jyotipriyo Mullick: Food & Supplies.
Binay Krishna Barman: Forest.
Sadhan Pandey: Consumer Affairs.
Subhendu Adhikari: Transport.
Purnendu Basu: Agriculture.
Chandranath Sinha: Fisheries.
Malay Ghatak: Law & Judicial and Labour.
Shantiram Mahato: Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs.
Churamoni Mahato: Minorities Development.
Soumen Mahapatra: Water Resources Investigation & Development.
James Kujur: Tribal Development.
Rajib Banerjee: Irrigation & Waterways.
Tapan Dasgupta: Agricultural Marketing.
Rabindranath Ghosh: North Bengal Development.
Arup Roy: Co-Operation.
Asish Banerjee: Science & Technology, Biotechnology and Planning.

Ministers of State with Independent Charge:

Sashi Panja: Health & Family Welfare, Child Development and Women Development & Social Welfare.
Swapan Debnath: Panchayat & Rural Development and Land & Land Reforms.
Siddiquilla Chowdhury: Mass Education Extension & Librery Services.
Manturam Pakhira: Sundarban Affairs.
Asima Patra: Technical Education & Training.

Ministers of State (MoS):

Laxmi Ratan Shukla: Sports.

Indranil Sen: Information and Cultural Affairs.
Jakir Hossain: Labour Department.
Gulam Rabbani: Tourism.
Sandhyarani Tudu: Backward Classes Welfare.
Shyamal Santra: Panchayat and Public Health.
Bachhu Hansda: North Bengal Development.
Giyasuddin Mollah: Minorities Affairs.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)