Bagmati govt gets full shape as six new ministers take oath

KATHMANDU, May 21: After a long tug-of-war between the ruling parties, the Bagmati province government got full shape on Sunday.

The division between the ruling parties led to the creation of a whole new ministry. Shalikram Jamakattel, who decided to downsize the number of ministries through his first decision after becoming the province CM, is now ready to increase the number of ministries from 11 to 12.

On Sunday, Pukar Maharjan from the Nepali Congress took oath as the Minister for Tourism, Industry and Cooperatives; Uttam Joshi as the Minister for Health; Masina Khadka as the Minister of Forest and Environment; and Ramakrishna Chitrakar took oath as a minister without portfolio.

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Similarly, CPN (Unified Socialist)’s Dr Rajendra Man Shrestha was sworn in as the Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development and Laxman Lamsal as the Minister for Labor, Employment and Transport.

Chief of Bagmati Province, Yadav Chandra Sharma administered the oath of office and secrecy to them. Earlier, the leader of the Nepali Congress Provincial Parliamentary Party, Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning, Bahadur Singh Lama, was holding the responsibility of the ministry that Nepali Congress would get.

Earlier, only Bahadur Singh and Tirtha Bahadur Lama became ministers from the NC. But now six ministers have been appointed from the NC, four from the CPN (Maoist Center) including the Chief Minister and two from CPN (US).

From the Maoist Center, Shalikram Jamakattel is the Chief Minister, Ganga Narayan Shrestha is the Minister for Internal Affairs and Law, Kumari Moktan is the Minister for Social Development and Yuvraj Dulal the Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development.