In the induction of minister after a week of formation of Rajasthan government by BJP, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje inducted nine Cabinet Ministers and three Ministers of State into her Cabinet. Two of the Ministers inducted are accused in the fake encounter cases.
Governor Margaret Alva administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 12 Ministers at a ceremony in Raj Bhavan here. Ms. Raje has given representation to 10 districts in the Cabinet formation.
The Cabinet Ministers sworn in were Gulab Chand Kataria, Rajendra Singh Rathore, Kalicharan Saraf, Kailash Meghwal, Sanwarlal Jat, Prabhulal Saini, Gajendra Singh Kheenvsar, Yunus Khan and Nandlal Meena — all Ministers in previous BJP regimes.
The three Ministers of State with independent charge are Arun Chaturvedi, Ajay Singh and Hem Singh Bhadana.
Gajendra Singh Khimsar become Power Minister, Nand Lal Meena gets SC/ST Welfare Ministry, Kailash Meghwal become new Mining Minister, Sanwar Lal Jat gets Water Resources Ministry, Prabhulal Saini become Agriculture Minister, Arun Chaturvedi become Social Justice Minister, Rajendra Rathore gets Health Ministry, Kali Charan Saraf become Education minister, State BJP chief Gulabhchand Kataria gets Rural Development and Panchayati Raj ministries, Younus Khan become PWD Minister, Hem Singh Bhadana gets Food and Supplies Ministry and Ajay Singh Kilak gets Co-operative Ministry (Independent charge).
Mr. Kataria, a former Home Minister in the previous Vasundhara Raje government between 2003 and 2008, was named by the Central Bureau of Investigation as an accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case of Gujarat, in its supplementary charge sheet filed earlier this year. He later obtained anticipatory bail from a special CBI court in Mumbai.
Mr. Rathore, elected from Churu, is considered a close confidant of Ms. Raje. His arrest by the CBI in April last year, for his alleged involvement in the Dara Singh encounter killing in 2006, had led to a confrontation between the Congress and the BJP, with the latter alleging “political misuse” of the premier investigating agency.
A Sessions court here discharged Mr. Rathore after a month-and-a-half, while rejecting the CBI’s charge of criminal conspiracy against him to get Dara Singh killed. The Rajasthan High Court later set aside the Sessions Court’s decision and ordered Mr. Rathore to surrender, but the Supreme Court stayed criminal proceedings against him in October last year.
Mr. Yunus Khan, one of the two Muslim MLAs elected on the BJP ticket, represents the minority community in the Cabinet, while Mr. Nandlal Meena, elected from the reserved constituency of Pratapgarh, is the only tribal face in the Cabinet.
The Cabinet formation took place a week after the swearing-in of Ms. Raje, mainly because of deliberations among the BJP’s central leaders over the caste and regional balances in the selection of contenders from among the 163 legislators. There is no woman among those inducted in the first phase of Cabinet formation.
src: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/fake-encounter-case-accused-kataria-rathore-inducted-in-rajasthan-cabinet/article5485389.ece