Butwal, April 24
Seven non-departmental ministers of Lumbini have been given responsibility.
According to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Bhumishwar Dhakal has been given the responsibility in the Ministry of Urban Development and Water Supply; Dinesh Panthi in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Law and Communication; Arjun KC in the Ministry of Forest and Environment and Ratna Bahadur Khatri in the Ministry of Social Development. All four ministers became ministers from CPN-UML.
Similarly, Dharma Bahadur Chaudhary has been given responsibility in the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development and Transport; Khadg Basnet in the Ministry of Tourism Industry and Cooperatives and Bhagwati Adhikari has been given the responsibility of the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens.
Chaudhary belongs to the People’s Freedom Party, Basnet is independent and Adhikari belongs to the CPN-Unified socialist. Earlier, Chetnarayan Acharya from UML was given the responsibility of the Finance Ministry, while Dipendra Pun of Maoist was given the responsibility of the Health Ministry.
Similarly, People’s Socialist Party’s Bhandari Lal Ahir, who was given the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Management, has resigned. Ahir was asked to resign after expressing his displeasure that People’s Socialist Party had given him only one ministry without following the written agreement to give him two ministries.
Chief Minister Jokh Bahadur Mahara is in charge of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation. Earlier, there were 10 ministries in Lumbini when CPN-UML’s Lila Giri and Nepali Congress’s Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary were chief ministers. But after Mahara became the chief minister of the Maoist center, the ministry was split and two more ministries were added to divide the parties.
