Chidambaram becomes Finance Minister, Shinde HM

New Delhi, Jul 31:

became the Finance Minister of India while

has been allocated Home Ministry, said the Rashtrapati Bhavan communique on Tuesday, Jul 31.

The reshuffle was facilitated after Pranab Mukherjee moved out to become the President of India leaving the post of Union Finance Minister vacant.

Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily got additional charge of Power Ministry, a portfolio which was held by Shinde.

UPA's decision to allocate home ministry to Shinde brought more criticism to it as Shinde is believed to have failed to fulfill his role as the power minister.

The announcement of cabinet reshuffle came on the day when Almost 600 million people, more than half the country's population, faced severe hardship when the northern and eastern power grids collapsed simultaneously just after 1 pm.

Reports say that the collapse was triggered by four states withdrawing power from the northern grid at the same time. This led to a transmission failure at Agra.

Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura were consequently affected by the world's biggest-ever blackout.

Nearly 500 trains stopped running all of a sudden. Vehicular movement was also affected. Traffic came to a grinding halt in many cities across north and east India.

Amid the blackout, Shinde's promotion as home minister shocked many as many started questioning about his alleged role in Adarsh society scam too.

OneIndia News