Chennai, March 8 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Agriculture Minister "Agni" S.S. Krishnamoorthy, who came under attack after an engineer in his department committed suicide, has been dropped from the cabinet.

A statement from Raj Bhavan on Saturday night said Governor K. Rosaiah had accepted Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam's recommendation to drop him from the council of ministers.

Krishnamoorthy's portfolio has been given to R. Vaithialingam, who is also the minister for housing and urban development.

Krishnamoorthy's ouster follows demands by political parties for his sacking after Muthukumarasamy, an engineer in the agricultural department, committed suicide last month.

It was alleged that Muthukumarasamy was pressured by Krishnamoorthy's office to appoint certain people as drivers in the department.

PMK founder S. Ramadoss demanded the arrest of the former minister for allegedly forcing Muthukumarasamy to take his life.

This is the first time Panneerselvam has dropped a minister from his council ever since he assumed the post last year after AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa was jailed for corruption.