Union Minister Piyush Goyal will take over charge of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, in addition to his existing portfolios as Minister of Railways and Minister of Commerce and Industry.
The government announced the appointment following the demise of Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in Delhi on Thursday.
Paswan was recuperating from a surgery, which his son and Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan described had to be done “due to the situation that had suddenly emerged.”
The 74-year-old Paswan, who was instrumental in bringing in a more robust consumer act and implementing the One Nation One Ration Card scheme, which would allow people, particularly those living away from their native places, to have access to PDS rations, was an eight-time Lok Sabha MP from Hajipur Lok Sabha Constituency in Bihar. He was a Rajya Sabha MP in the NDA government, after he decided not to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Paswan, who served under a record five Prime Ministers, earlier held the portfolios of Labour, Railways, Communications and Coal.