Major reshuffle in TN cabinet after induction of Udhayanidhi Stalin as minister

Hours after Udhayanidhi Stalin was sworn in as a minister on Wednesday, portfolios of 10 Tamil Nadu ministers were reshuffled. A press release from the Raj Bhavan said Chief Minister M.K. Stalin recommended the changes.

Udhayanidhi Stalin will handle youth welfare and sports development in addition to the departments of special programme implementation, poverty alleviation and rural indebtedness. Sports and youth affairs was handled by Siva V. Meyyanathan, who will now be the minister for environment and climate change. Special programme implementation department was held by CM Stalin himself while the poverty alleviation programme and rural indebtedness were with K.R. Periyakaruppan.

Cooperation minister I. Periyasamy and rural development minister Periyakaruppan have swapped their designations. ‘Ex-Servicemen’, the portfolio held by Periyasamy, has been handed over to Meyyanathan and the department of economics and statistics, held by Meyyananthan has been handed over to P.T.R. Palanivel Thiyagarajan.

PTR, one of the senior ministers and a trusted lieutenant of CM Stalin got the additional charge of the department of economics and statistics. PTR thanked the chief minister for allocating an additional department to him in a tweet: “Grateful to CM MK Stalin for allocating me additional responsibility for the Department of Economics and Statistics. The vital department with 1700 staff forms the core of the government’s field data collection and situation assessment/ certification.” The economics and statistics department has complete data on various schemes of the government, including insurance claims.

Siva Meyyanathan will now be the minister for environment and climate change apart from holding the portfolio of pollution control. Forest minister K. Ramachandran and tourism minister M Mathiventhan too have swapped their portfolios. Mathiventhan will handle tourism and Ramachandran will handle the department of forest. R. Gandhi, minister for handlooms and textiles, will also handle boomidhan and gramdhan, the land reforms section under land ceiling act in the revenue department. Khadi and village industries board, which was with R. Gandhi, has been handed over to R.S. Raja Kannappan, the minister for backward classes welfare.

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) which was handled by Housing Minister S. Muthusamy has been handed over to P.K. Sekar babu, minister for Hindu religious and endowment charitable trust. Muthusamy will continue to be the minister for housing and urban development with an additional charge of rural housing, town planning projects, and housing development accommodation control.

This is the first major reshuffle of the Tamil Nadu cabinet since M.K. Stalin took charge as chief minister. A few months ago, S.S. Shivashankar and Raja Kannappan swapped portfolios of transport and backward classes welfare.