Telangana Cabinet to get facelift, KCR to rejig portfolios next week

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to reshuffle the ministers’ portfolios including some of the portfolios presently held by him, within a week.

TRS sources informed that the Chief Minister has already started the exercise and conveyed this to a few party seniors about the impending reshuffle which will see that everyone gets the “same weightage” in the Cabinet.

Sources said he will also divest cooperation, information and public relations and other few portfolios and distribute them to the ministers, retaining general administration and law and order responsibilities with himself.

“There are a few ministers including K.T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao who have additional portfolios.  At the same time, a few are handling only one or two subjects. “The Chief Minister now wants to reshuffle the portfolios and see that everyone is equal to him,” the source said.

If implemented, Mr Rama Rao, who is presently holding panchayati raj, municipal administration and information technology may have to give up one of these. Similarly Mr Harish Rao, who is holding Irrigation, marketing, mines and geology and legislative affairs also may have to lose one or two.
Sources said the tourism portfolio being held by Mr A. Chandulal may be offered to another minister.

The Chief Minister had earlier indicated that he needed to concentrate more on supervising the works of various schemes taken up by the government like Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha, new irrigation projects, roads etc., by visiting the districts starting from April this year.

He will also assess the performance of the various ministries before going for a major Cabinet reshuffle. However, the indications are that the Chief Minister will now be doing only a reshuffling of portfolios.