New Delhi, May 27 (Inditop): The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, on Thursday described his Council of Ministers as a mix of experience and youthful energy.
Talking to reporters after 59 new ministers were inducted into the Union Cabinet, Dr. Singh said: “The cabinet is a mix of experience and youth. When we decided on the names, we took into consideration a lot of issues, not just regional considerations.”
“The delay in getting the Council of Ministers together is because we wanted to do a thorough exercise,” he added.
For ministers who did not find a place in the Council of Ministers, he said, they have been dropped and will have other avenues of public service.
Earlier in the day, India got its biggest cabinet in ten years after President Pratibha Patil administered oath of office to 14 Cabinet ministers, seven Ministers of State (MoS) with Independent charge and 38 (MoS).
The grand swearing-in ceremony, which started around 11:30 a.m., took place in the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Virbhadra Singh, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Farooq Abdullah, Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja, Mallikarjun Kharge, Kumari Selja, Subodh Kant Sahay, Dr. M S Gill, G K Vasan, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Mukul Wasnik, Kantilal Bhuria and M K Azhagiri, took oath as Cabinet ministers.
Praful Patel, Prithviraj Chavan, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Salman Khursheed, Dinsha Patel, Jairam Ramesh, Krishna Tirath sworn-in as MoS with Independent charge.
E Ahamed, V Narayanasamy, Srikant Jena, Mullappally Ramachandran, D Purandeswari, Panabaka Lakshmi, Ajay Maken, K H Muniyappa, Namo Narain Meena, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, A Sai Prathap, Gurudas Kamat, M M Pallam Raju, Mahadev Khandela, Harish Rawat, K V Thomas, Saugata Ray, Dinesh Trivedi, Shishir Adhikari, Sultan Ahmed, Mukul Roy, Mohan Jatua, S S Palanimanickam, D Napoleon, S Jagathrakshakan, S Gandhiselvan, Preneet Kaur, Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, Bharatsinh Solanki, Tusharbhai Chaudhary, Arun Yadav, Prateek Prakash Patil, R P N Singh, Vincent Pala, Pradeep Jain and Agatha Sangma took oath as MoS.
In the first round of swearing-in on Friday, only 19 ministers were inducted along with the Prime Minister. Portfolios have been allocated to only six ministers.
Meanwhile, President Pratibha Patil has summoned the Rajya Sabha to meet on June 4.
Subject to exigencies of business, the Session is scheduled to conclude on June 9.
rounak