The President of India signed the file assigning the charge of the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers to Shri D. V. Sadananda Gowda, in addition to his existing portfolio in the evening on Tuesday.
The change was necessitated following the demise of Union Minister and Karnataka BJP leader Ananth Kumar. Union Ministers DV Sadananda Gowda and Narendra Singh Tomar were assigned additional portfolios of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, respectively.
Sadananda Gowda is in charge of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and this has come to him as additional charge. Whether he would continue in this or not is yet not clear. The two ministries held by late Kumar were important and cannot be managed as additional charges, feel govt watchers.
It bears recall that Union Minister Ananth Kumar passed away in the early hours of Monday. Kumar died at a private hospital in Bengaluru. Being the chemical and fertilizer minister Kumar was involved with the affairs of cooperative giants such as IFFCO and Kribhco.
His demise was mourned by cooperators cutting across party lines including IFFCO MD, Kribhco Chairman and Sahakar Bharati Patron, among others.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind and several of his ministerial colleagues expressed shock and dismay at Kumar’s death.
Born in a middle class family on July 22, 1959, Kumar was one of the few ministers to have served in the earlier NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.