Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday allocated work to all members of his six-party three-tier ministry, hours after most of the ministers took oath of office at the presidential palace here.
Determined to give a boost to the sagging economy, Manmohan Singh allotted most economic ministries to members of his Congress party, which dominates the 79-member United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ministry.
The latest distribution of work follows the May 22 oath taking by six senior cabinet ministers: P. Chidambaram (Home), A.K. Antony (Defence), Sharad Pawar (Agriculture), S.M. Krishna (External Affairs), Pranab Mukherjee (Finance) and Mamata Banerjee (Railways).
At an interaction with all the ministers Thursday, the prime minister underlined the need to set benchmarks while UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi stressed that everyone would be judged by their performance.
Outgoing commerce minister Kamal Nath has been put in charge of road transport and highways, a ministry that will play a vital role in infrastructure development. Anand Sharma gets the commerce and industry portfolio that Kamal Nath held earlier.
Three economic ministries went to Tamil Nadu ally DMK, with A. Raja retaining Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran getting textiles, and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi