Eight ministers inducted in Deuba Cabinet

Eight new ministers were sworn-in under the leadership of Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba here on Saturday.

The eight new ministers from Rastriya Prajatantra Party including Deputy Prime Minister, Kamal Thapa were sworn-in here amid a procession in the President's Office.

This is for the 7th time Prime Minister Deuba has expanded his cabinet after taking over as the Prime Minister just in five months.

Apart from Thapa other new faces in the Nepal Government's are: Dina Nath Giri, Bikram Bahadur Thapa, Jayanta Chand, Kunti Kumari Shahi, Bhaskar Bhadra, Kanta Bhattarai and Sushil Shrestha.

Giri, Thapa and Chand are appointed as Ministers whereas Shahi, Bhadra, Bhattarai and Shrestha are Ministers of State. None of the new inducted ministers have been assigned any portfolio till now.

While addressing the farewell of Nepal Parliament, Prime Minister Deuba gave a hint of another reshuffle in the cabinet indicating to remove Maoist Ministers from the portfolio.

"The people are raising concern over the larger size of cabinet. There is no mention about the number of ministers in the cabinet. Where is it mentioned?" Prime Minister Deuba question as it was raised by opposition leader as well as former Prime Minister KP Oli.

"It (the constitution) has stated about the number after the end of transition period. Can't the Prime Minister use the right assured by the Constitution? The number can decrease within 2 to 4 days, you will know that soon or within 5 to 7 days," he added.

Deuba who is facing flak for having the large size of Cabinet in Nepali history has 64 ministers on board, including the latest expansion.

The reaction of Prime Minister Deuba comes amid the unification attempt between the Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and Maoist Center (MC) which will now be the arch rival of the Deuba-led Nepali Congress as they have agreed to make alliance.

Deuba was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Nepal by President Bhandari on June 7, after the 70-year-old leader secured 388 votes out of a total of 558 votes.

By Binod Prasad Adhikari

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