Amit Mitra gets commerce and industry department

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday took away commerce and industry portfolio from Partha Chatterjee and handed over the department to her finance minister Amit Mitra. Mitra will also run the finance department along with the key commerce and industry portfolio.

Chatterjee, on the other hand will function as the minister for Information Technology (IT) and parliamentary affairs. Apart from trimming Chatterjee, Mamata also dropped her forest minister Hiten Burman, who had joined her party in 2011 after quitting the Forward Bloc. Burman was also a Bloc MP from West Bengal before joining Trinamool Congress. The chief minister also inducted two new faces-Sashi Panja and Binay Krishna Burman in her cabinet.

By making Mitra her new industry minister, Mamata, in fact, attempted to give a clear signal to the industry lobby that her government was very keen to go for a rapid industrialisation in the state and Mitra will enhance the process. Mitra is well know to the country's industry lobby.