Nitish Kumar keeps Home as he distributes portfolio among Bihar Ministers

PATNA (INDIA): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar formed the cabinet of his new NDA-backed government and distributed portfolios among the ministers.nnMr Kumar retained the key portfolios of Home, General Administration and Vigilance while giving away the crucial Finance and Commercial Taxes to his Deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, a senior official of the state government said requesting anonymity.nnThe list has not yet been uploaded on the government website.nnSushil Modi will also hold additional portfolios of Environment and Forest and Information Technology, he said.nnPrem Kumar, who was the leader of the BJP in the Assembly during the erstwhile Grand Alliance government, was allocated Agriculture while Nitish’s trusted lieutenant Bijendra Prasad Yadav was given Energy, Prohibition and Excise.nnAnother Nitish confidant, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, got Water Resources Department, besides the additional portfolio of Planning and Development.nnThe portfolios for other ministers are as follows:nNand Kishore Yadav– Road ConstructionnShrawan Kumar– Rural Development and Parliamentary AffairsnRam Narayan Mandal– Revenue and Land ReformsnJai Kumar Singh– Industries, Science and TechnologynPramod Kumar– TourismnKrishnandan Verma– EducationnMaheshwar Hazari– Building ConstructionnVinod Narayan Jha– PHEDnShailesh Kumar– Rural WorksnSuresh Kumar Sharma– Urban Development and HousingnKumari Manju Verma– Social WelfarenVijay Kumar Sinha– Labour ResourcesnSantosh Kumar Nirala– TransportnRana Randhir Singh– CooperativenKhurshid alias Feroz Ahmad– Minority Welfare andnSugarcane DevelopmentnVinod Kumar Singh– Mines and GeologynMadan Sahni– Food and Consumer ProtectionnKrishna Kumar Rishi– Art and CulturenKapildeo Kamat– Panchayati RajnDinesh Chandra Yadav– Minor Irrigation and DisasternManagementnRamesh Rishideo– SC, ST WelfarenBrij Kishore Bind– Backward and EBC WelfarenPashupati Paras– Animal and Fish Resources