The government has begun preparations to abolish some ministries and merge others under new names.
According to a source close to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, four ministries will be scrapped.
Similarly, work to rename six other ministries has reached the final stage, the source told Onlinekhabar.
“Four ministries will be abolished, and six will be renamed. Some functions will be separated from existing ministries and brought directly under the Prime Minister,” the source said, adding that the process is likely to be completed within this week.
For this purpose, the government had formed a five-member task force led by Govinda Bahadur Karki, Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.
The task force proposed limiting the number of federal ministries to 17. Based on that proposal, the government has moved forward with the restructuring, the source said.
Which will be separated and which abolished?
According to the plan, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Water Supply and Sanitation, the Ministry of Urban Development, and the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration are set to be abolished.
The sports sector will be merged with the Ministry of Education to form a new Ministry of Education and Sports.
The youth sector will be integrated with the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens, along with the Ministry of Health and Population and the Social Security Ministry, to create a new Ministry of Gender Equality and Social Development.
Sanitation will be separated from the Ministry of Water Supply and merged into the Health Ministry. Meanwhile, water supply and urban development will be merged into the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, which will be renamed the Integrated Ministry of Physical Infrastructure.
“There are also internal preparations to move transport out of the physical infrastructure ministry and align it with the labour sector,” the source said. “The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration will be brought under the Prime Minister. Poverty alleviation from the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, information technology from the Communications Ministry, and science and technology from the Education Ministry will also be placed under the Prime Minister, in line with the task force recommendations.”
In line with its 100-day commitment, the government is preparing to limit the number of ministries to 17 while centralising more responsibilities under the Prime Minister’s Office, a member of the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The government’s 100-point administrative reform plan had also included reducing the number of federal ministries.
This restructuring is being carried out as part of implementing those reform measures.
