Virbhadra keeps lions share of portfolios

Shimla : Tourism , Home , PWD , Planning , Finance, Personnel , GAD , Education and a host of other portfolios have been retained by chief minister Virbhadra Singh and the rest have been distributed to his nine ministers .

Vidya Stokes second in seniority after Singh has been made the Horticulture , IT and IPH  minister .

Kaul Singh next in the line gets Health , Revenue and Law. While G S Bali has been entrusted with Transport , Food and Civil Supplies , Technical Education and Vocational & Industrial Training .

Sujan Singh Pathania another MLA from Kangra district has been allocated the Power portfolio(multi-purpose projects and power. He also gets Agriculture .

Mukesh Aghnihotri from Una district has been given the Industries , Labour and Employment , Parliamentary Affairs , Information and Public relations .

Thakur Singh Bharmauri from Chamba’s Bharmaur tribal seat gets Forests and Fisheries .

Prakash Chaudhary from Mandi district has been assigned Excise and Taxation . Dhani Ram Shandil gets the Social Justice and Empowerment and Sainik Welfare portfolio .

There is talk of inducting two other ministers soon . The names of Anil Sharma from Mandi and Karan Singh from Kullu are doing the rounds .

Singh said the cabinet was a nice blend of experience and youth . He also gave a signal that he would soon step down as state party  chief.