Prime Minister Oli forms 22-member Cabinet; Government decides to upgrade TU cricket ground

Kathmandu / July 15: Newly appointed Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday formed a 22-member Cabinet, including two deputy prime ministers.

Shortly after Oli’s swearing-in, President Ramchandra Paudel administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed ministers.

Prakash Man Singh of the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML’s Bishnu Prasad Paudel have been inducted as deputy prime ministers. They will also head the Ministry of Urban Development and the Finance Ministry, respectively.

Likewise, Congress Chief Whip Ramesh Lekhak has been appointed as the Home Minister while Arzu Rana has been given the portfolio of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Deepak Khadka (Energy Ministry), Ajay Chaurasiya (Law Ministry), Aain Bahadur Shahi (Forest Ministry) and Teju Lal Chaudhary (Ministry of Youth and Sports) are other Congress leaders who have been inducted into the Oli Cabinet.

Pradeep Poudel, Badri Pandey, and Ramnath Adhikari from the Shekhar Koirala faction of the Congress will assume office as ministers for health, tourism and agriculture, respectively.

From the UML, Deputy General Secretary Prithvi Subba Gurung has been appointed as the Minister for Communications.

Rajkumar Gupta will head the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration while Manbir Rai has been appointed as the defence minister.

Balram Adhikari and Damodar Bhandari will continue in their positions as the Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives, and Poverty Alleviation and the Minister for Industry Commerce and Supplies, respectively.

UML’s Bidhya Bhattarai has been given the portfolio of the Education Ministry and Devendra Dahal the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure.

Similarly, Sharad Singh Bhandari of the Loktantrik Samajabadi Party has been appointed as the Minister for Labour.

Janata Samajabadi Party leaders Nawal Kishor Sah and Pradeep Yadav will also head th

Prime Minister Oli assumes office

Newly appointed Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli assumed office on Monday.

After taking the oath of office and secrecy before President Ramchandra Paudel at the Office of the President on Monday, PM Oli visited Lainchaur to pay homage to the martyrs and headed to the CPN (UML)’s party headquarters in Chyasal of Lalitpur. The CPN (UML) Chair Oli became the 45th Prime Minister with the support of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the parliament.

In Chyasal, he laid a wreath at the portraits of the founding leader of the Nepal Communist Party, Pushpa Lal Shrestha, the party’s former Chair Man Mohan Adhikari and party’s the then General Secretary Madan Bhandari.

Then he reached Singha Durbar to assume office at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. Officiating Chief Secretary Leeladevi Gadtaula, secretaries and the government senior officials were on hand there to welcome the new Prime Minister. According to his Secretariat, the decisions made on the very first day of taking charge of his office by the new Prime Minister would be unveiled soon.

President Paudel had on July 14 appointed CPN (UML) Chair Oli to the post of Prime Minister in accordance with Article 76 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal.

Government decides to upgrade TU cricket ground

The government has decided to upgrade the Kirtipur-based TU cricket ground.

A first meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in Singha Durbar on Monday decided to construct essential infrastructures within ten months.

According to the Minister for Communications and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung, who has been assigned as the government’s spokesperson, this includes seating arrangements for spectators, installing floodlights for night games, and other necessary facilities.

The meeting also assigned Lila Devi Gadtaula as acting chief secretary. Gadtaula was officiating chief secretary since June 24 after the government transferred suspended chief secretary Baikuntha Aryal, who has been chargesheeted in a corruption case, to the National Planning Commission.

The meeting also decided to provide relief to the families of those missing in the disaster for up to ten days, equivalent to the support provided to the families of the deceased. Minister Gurung said the government has decided to prioritise the search for the missing and the treatment of the injured.

The government also decided to make Nepal free of street children within one year. The meeting also decided to release the second and third instalments of relief to the earthquake victims in Jajarkot.

Spokesperson Gurung said the Cabinet has decided to disclose its decisions to the public only after 24 hours, except in cases of urgency.