Ramakanta Biswas

A day after Odisha Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das was shot dead, the State government has allocated the department to Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari.

Pujari, who is also the Excise Minister of the State, will remain in additional charge of the Health department. 

As per official sources, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has allocated Health and Family Welfare department to Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari with the approval of Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal.

Naba Das, the wealthiest minister of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s cabinet, succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds he sustained at Brajarajnagar in Jharsuguda on Sunday.

A police ASI, Gopal Das, fired shots at him when he reached Gandhi Chhak in Brajarajnagar for a scheduled programme. Following the attack, he was rushed to Jharsuguda DHH from where he was airlifted to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar. However, his condition deteriorated and he passed away at the hospital.

Das represented Jharsuguda Assembly Constituency and won the 2019 elections on a BJD ticket. Prior to that, he was in Congress and worked as the Working President of the party.

He left Congress and joined BJD in January 2019 just before the elections to contest from a BJD ticket.

Reported by Harihar Chand, OTV

scrollToTop