— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

ANOTHER INNINGS: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (right) and CPI (M) State secretary Biman Bose at the party headquarters in Kolkata on Wednesday.

KOLKATA: Seventeen new faces have been inducted into the seventh Left Front Government, to be led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, in West Bengal. Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi will swear in the 44-member Ministry, with 33 Ministers of Cabinet rank, here on Thursday.

Biman Bose, chairman of the Left Front committee, released the list of Ministers after a meeting of the Left Front here on Wednesday. A list containing the ministers' names was also submitted to the Governor.

Earlier, Mr. Bhattacharjee had spoken of bringing in several changes in his new Ministry to improve the Government's performance. More than a third of the new Ministry comprises new faces.

Six Ministers of the previous Government, who successfully contested the Assembly elections, have been dropped. Another eight did not contest the polls.

Mr. Bhattacharjee has taken additional charge of the crucial Development and Planning portfolio, Food Processing and Horticulture, Science and Technology and Minority Development, apart from retaining Home, Information and Hill Affairs.

Mr. Nirupam Sen retained the Commerce and Industries portfolio while Asim Dasgupta will continue as Finance Minister.

A significant development is the induction of newcomer Debesh Das of the CPI(M), who has been given charge of information technology.

Manab Mukherjee, who held that portfolio in the previous ministry, will now look after Tourism and Cottage and Small Scale Industries. Mr. Das is a professor of electronics in Jadavpur University. Power Minister Mrinal Banerjee has been given additional charge of Labour.

Other CPI(M) partners in the Left Front retain the portfolios they held in the previous Government. though there are some changes in names of those to assume charge. A new department - Self Help Group and Self Employment - has been introduced, with one of the three women in the ministry chosen to head it.

Sweeping changes

There are sweeping changes in the Education departments - a sector Mr. Bhattacharjee is expected to pay special attention to.

The new Higher Education Minister is Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury, one of the new faces to be inducted.

Partha De will be in charge of School Education, a portfolio he has held in the past. No Ministers associated with education in the previous ministry contested the polls.

Another department Mr Bhattacharjee will focus on is Health, to be retained by Surjya Kantas Mishra.

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