Jammu and Kashmir ministry expanded

In the first expansion of the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed ministry in Jammu and Kashmir in more than a year, 10 new faces, four of them belonging to Congress, were on Thursday inducted taking the strength of the council of ministers to 39.

Suman Lata Bhagat of Congress was the only one given Cabinet berth while the rest were taken as ministers of state with the Congress, PDP and PDF sharing three each.

Governor Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at a function in Raj Bhawan.

The ministers of state sworn in are Raman Bhalla, Yogesh Sawhney, Dr Ramesh Chander (all Congress), Sarfaraz Khan, Ghulam Hassan  Jhan, Dr Ghulam Nabi Lone (all PDP) Manjit Singh, Usman Abdul Majid and Jatinder Singh alias Babu Singh (all PDF).

The five-party coalition government was formed in the state on November 2, 2002. It was first expanded on January 14, 2003.