President appoints 25-member Cabinet

President Mahinda Rajapakse yesterday appointed a 25-member Cabinet. Twenty-three non-Cabinet and 29 Deputy Ministers were also appointed.

The Cabinet was appointed five days after Rajapakse was sworn-in as the fifth Executive President. He is due to make a policy statement in Parliament on Friday with the opening of the new session.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which played a major role in President Rajapakse's election campaign did not accept any Ministerial portfolios. The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) also maintained their earlier stance of not accepting any Ministerial portfolios.

Rajapakse will have two Ministerial portfolios - Defence and Finance - and appointed Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and Rohana Dissanayake as Deputy Ministers for Finance. No Deputy Defence Minister was appointed.

Another highlight of President Rajapakse's Cabinet is the absence of separate Ministries for respective religions. Instead of appointing Ministers in charge of respective religions, Tissa Karaliyadde was appointed as Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs.

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was also sworn in as the Minister of Disaster Management, a subject which earlier came directly under the purview of the President. Education, earlier held by outgoing President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, was given to former Power and Energy Minister Susil Premajayantha.

The Children's Development Ministry, a new Ministry created under President Rajapakse in keeping with a pledge in the Mahinda Chintana, was given to Sumedha G. Jayasena in addition to her Women's Affairs Minister's portfolio. The only other woman in the Cabinet is Ferial Ashraff, the Housing and Construction Minister.

Former Foreign Minister and Tourism Minister Anura Bandaranaike retained only his Tourism portfolio as Mangala Samaraweera was appointed Foreign Minister.

Samaraweera also retained his earlier portfolios of Ports and Aviation.

Former Finance and Planning Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama, a former SLAS officer, was sworn in as the new Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, former Plantation Industries Minister, was sworn in as the new Media and Information Minister.

D.M. Jayaratne, former Post and Telecommunications Minister, will be Rural Economic Promotion Minister. He retains his earlier portfolio.

Maitiripala Sirisena is the Minister of Agriculture, Environment, Irrigation and Mahaweli Development.

One more feather was added to Jeyaraj Fernandopulle's cap as he was sworn in as the Highways Minister in addition to the portfolio of Trade Commerce and Consumer Affairs, which he held earlier.

A.H.M. Fowzie, W.D.J. Seneviratne, Susil Premajayantha, Douglas Devananda and S.B. Navinna were given new Ministries.

A.H.M. Fowzie was given the Petroleum and Petroleum Resource Development Ministry which was created recently and vested with outgoing President Kumaratunga in addition to Railways and Transport Ministry. Navinna was appointed as Rural Industries and Self-Employment Promotion Minister.

Nimal Siripala de Silva, Dinesh Gunawardena, Athauda Seneviratne, Piyasena Gamage, Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, Rohitha Bogollagama, Prof. Tissa Vitharana and D.E.W. Gunasekara retained their earlier Ministerial portfolios.

Milroy Fernando, Jeevan Kumaratunga, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Tissa Karaliyadde, Felix Perera, C.B. Ratnayake and Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena who earlier held Cabinet ranks were appointed as non-Cabinet Ministers.

Wijedasa Rajapakse who was the only SLFP MP who did not hold any Ministerial portfolio earlier was sworn in yesterday as the Deputy Foreign Minister.