Narayan Chandra Chanda attended his first cabinet meeting as minister a day.
Chanda had attended several cabinet meetings alongside former minister Muhammed Sayedul Hoque, whose post fell vacant following his death on Dec 16.
“The cabinet has sat for a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” said Cabinet Division Deputy Secretary Monira Begum. “Narayan Chandra Chanda is attending the meeting.”
The other new cabinet appointees, AKM Shajahan Kamal and Mustafa Jabbar, did not attend the meeting on Wednesday because they had yet to formally receive their portfolios.
Though regular cabinet meetings are scheduled on Monday, this week’s meeting was pushed back to Wednesday. The expansion of the cabinet was announced on Monday.
The three new ministers, and new state minister Kazi Keramat Ali, were sworn into office by President Md Abdul Hamid on Tuesday.
Their departments have yet to be formally announced, but sources say that Narayon Chandra Chanda will remain with the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock. He is also listed as the minister of fisheries and livestock at the Secretariat, reports bdnews24.
“We have become self-sufficient in fish production,” Chanda told the media during a visit to Dhanmondi to pay respects to the portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Tuesday.
“We will announce it officially in a few days. We have also progressed significantly in the livestock sector as meat production has increased sevenfold. In the future we will maintain these achievements and move on to new ones.”