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Kathmandu,Wednesday March 22, 2000 Chaitra 09, 2056.
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Cabinet named
By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, March 21 - Newly appointed Prime
Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today named a 25-member cabinet a day after he was
appointed to the office in less than a year.
A press communique issued by His Majesty’s
Principal Press Secretariat today said the new council of ministers was constituted on the
recommendation of Prime Minister Koirala.
Most of members are old faces with exception of
five who are first-timers. Only one of them is a cabinet rank minister.
The list was sent to the Royal Palace this evening
after Koirala spent the day discussing and finalizing the list with Khum Bahadur Khadka,
Amod Prasad Upadhaya and Shekhar Koirala.
Most of the people are Koirala supporters with only
a handful picked from the other side as promised by Koirala following his victory in the
parliamentary party election to include people who voted against him.
Though the new Council of Ministers fairly
represent all the regions of the country, nearly half of them are Brahmins. Only a couple
are from the Newar community while representatives from most ethnical community hold only
portfolios as state ministers.
Koirala has kept the Royal Palace Affairs, Defense,
Supplies, Housing and Physical Planning, Women and Social Welfare, Youth, Sports and
Culture, Labour and General Administration with him.
Sources close to Koirala say that he kept few
ministries to himself as he plans to reduce the number of ministries to 19 from the
present 27 after the first cabinet meeting as per the recommendations of the
Administrative Reforms Committee. These ministries will be merged into the other existing
ministries.
Ram Chandra Poudel continues as the Deputy Prime
Minister while Khum Bahadur Khadka, a close aide of Koirala, has been trusted with the
coveted Water Resources Ministry and the Works and Transport Ministry.
Govind Raj Joshi gets powerful Home Minister while
Chakra Prasad Bastola has been named Foreign Minister.
Similarly, Mahant Thakur has Law and Justice and
Parliamentary Affairs, Siddharaj Ojha has Land Reforms and Management, Jayaprakash Prasad
Gupta has Information and Communications, Ram Baran Yadav has Health, Mahesh Acharya has
Finance, Ramkrishna Tamrakar has Industry and Commerce, Tarani Dutta Chataut has Tourism
and Civil Aviation, Amod Prasad Upadhaya has Education and Surendra Prasad Chaudhary has
Science and Technology.
The Ministers for State are Baldev Sharma
Majagaiya, Agriculture; Shivaraj Joshi, Population and Environment; Mohammad Aftab Alam,
Forest and Soil Conservation; Ram Bahadur Tamang, Water Resources; Kamala Pant, Women and
Social Welfare; Narendra Bikram Nemwang, Industry and Commerce; Dilendra Prasad Badu,
Education; Surendra Hamal, Labour; Gopal Rai, Land Reform and Management; Suresh Malla,
Local Development and Tirtharam Dangol, Health.
Koirala on Saturday defeated Former Prime Minister
Sher Bahadur Deuba in the parliamentary party election and was chosen to be the
country’s new prime minister.
He succeeds Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, his long time
colleague-now-turned-foe in the party, who was forced out of office he half for nine
months after majority of the party lawmakers rebelled against him and filed a proposal
expressing no confidence.
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