Newly appointed Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi assumed charge of the ministry on Sunday, a day after he was given the additional portfolio following the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan amid nationwide student protests over the NEET paper leak.
After taking charge, Joshi said his immediate priority would be to understand the functioning of the ministry before taking decisions.
He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for entrusting him with the Education Ministry, saying the responsibility had been given to him “based in trust and belief”. Joshi said he had arrived in Delhi from Karnataka on Sunday morning and immediately began attending meetings to familiarise himself with the ministry’s functioning, its ongoing work and key decisions.
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Calling education “a new area of work” for him, Joshi said he was interacting with senior officials to gain a better understanding of the department before taking the next steps.
“The department is quite big and thus I will prioritise understanding it first and then delivering,” he told reporters.
Joshi was assigned the charge of the Ministry of Education on Saturday after President Droupadi Murmu accepted Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation from the Union Council of Ministers with immediate effect.
In an official statement, Rashtrapati Bhavan said, “The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignation of Shri Dharmendra Pradhan from the Union Council of Ministers, with immediate effect, under clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution of India. Further, as advised by the Prime Minister, the President has directed that Shri Pralhad Joshi, Cabinet Minister, be assigned the charge of the Ministry of Education, in addition to his existing portfolio.”
Joshi will continue to hold his existing portfolios of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and New and Renewable Energy, while also heading the Education Ministry. During the previous government, he served as the Union Minister for Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs.
Why Pradhan stepped down
Pradhan resigned on Saturday, saying he had submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the interest of students and to ensure that the ongoing protests over alleged examination irregularities were not exploited by “anti-national forces.”
His resignation came after weeks of student-led protests across the country over the NEET paper leak, which culminated in the Centre accepting the key demand of the Cockroach Janta Party-led.
(With inputs from PTI)
