Manas Bhuniya, who was made environment minister of Bengal only 10 months back, lost the portfolio on Thursday.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has taken charge of the department.
Bhuniya will continue to be the minister for water resources investigation and development, a department he had been in charge of along with the environment department.
Biswajit Mukherjee, a former chief law officer in the environment department, said this is the sixth change of environment minister since 2016. “Most of these ministers could not complete their tenure and implement whatever the plans they had while assuming charge,” said Mukherjee.
According to sources, a series of recent blasts inillegal fireworks units across the state is one of the reasons that triggered the change.
The incidents had put the chief minister in a spot just ahead of the rural polls. After a blast in Egra that killed at least 12 people, the chief minister said she was unaware that such illegal units were running in the state. She had to apologise for the incident publicly.
“Bhuniya did little to address the key environmental issues of the state and failed in containing the illegal fireworks units. We urged the chief minister to intervene after the blasts,” said green activist Naba Dutta.
This newspaper couldnot contact Bhuniya forcomment.
