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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday reallocated portfolios to his ministerial colleagues in the wake of the re-organisation of the state government’s departments notified on Friday.

He has, however, refrained from expanding his Cabinet and the total number of ministers remains 27. The number of Cabinet ministers and ministers of state also remains unchanged.

The re-organiation done on the recommendation of the Administrative Reforms Commission headed by VS Dubey had reduced the total number of departments from 47 to 44 besides tinkering with a few of them, chopping one wing here and adding another there. The notification was issued by Chief Secretary AK Chaudhary after approval was granted by Governor RS Gavai.

The chief minister has kept a maximum of 10 specified departments under his own control besides any residual departments not mentioned like the Animal Husbandry Department. Among the ministers affected by the disbanding and pruning of departments is Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi who has lost control over the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department besides the Programme Implementation part of the Institutional Finance wing of the Finance Department.

Monazir Hassan has lost the housing portion of his department which, after being merged into the Urban Development Department, has passed under the control of Ashwini Kumar Chaubey. Sudha Srivastava has been a gainer as the Registration Department has been merged with the Excise and Prohibition Department.

Rural Development Minister Narendra Narayan Yadav now has two departments to look after named Rural Works and Panchayati Raj. Similarly, Rameshwar Paswan will have SC and ST Welfare Department as well as Social Welfare Department.

The Food and Civil Supplies Department has been renamed Food and Consumer Protection Department and the Sugarcane Department has become Cane Industries Department.