PM tweaks cabinet
Curtails powers of 2
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reallocated portfolios of five cabinet members yesterday.
She curtailed powers of two ministers and increased that of two state ministers.
Md Murad Hasan, previously state minister for health, has been reappointed as the state minister for information, said a circular of the cabinet division.
Hasina made the first reshuffle of the cabinet, five months into her third straight tenure as the PM since January 2009.
According to the circular, Tajul Islam, previously minister for local government, rural development and cooperatives, will now head the Local Government Division only.
Mustafa Jabbar, a technocrat minister who was previously minister for post, telecommunication and ICT, will now lead the Post and Telecommunication Division only.
PM reshuffles From now on, State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak will oversee the ICT Division and Shawpan Bhattacharjee, previously state minister for LGRD, will head the Rural Development and Cooperatives Division as the state minister.
Hasina formed a 47-member cabinet on January 7 this year after the 11th parliamentary polls.
Her new council of ministers includes 24 ministers, 19 state ministers and three deputy ministers.
She dropped 34 of the previous cabinet, including AL heavyweights Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Mohammed Nasim and Matia Chowdhury, to induct 27 new faces and four former ministers into the council of ministers.
AL insiders say the PM picked the new faces for the cabinet from the districts that had no representation in it for long.
Hasina formed the first government in 1996.