Five newly appointed Bagmati Province ministers take oath

HETAUDA: Five newly appointed ministers of the Bagmati Province government took the oath of office and secrecy today.

Bagmati Province Chief Deepak Prasad Devkota administered the oath to Prabhat Tamang, Kanchan Chandra Bade, Suresh Shrestha, Armila KC Nepal, and Binu Rayamajhi. Chief Minister Indra Bahadur Baniya appointed them earlier in the day.

Bade from Kavre has been assigned the Ministry of Social Development; Tamang from Rasuwa, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning; Nepal from Lalitpur, the Ministry of Youth and Sports; Shrestha from Bhaktapur, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism; and Rayamajhi from Chitwan, the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation.

With these appointments, Chief Minister Baniya—who had formed an eight-member Cabinet including himself—has now completed the 14-member Council of Ministers, adding five ministers from his party, Nepali Congress, in this second phase.

Earlier, Krishna Tamang of Sindhupalchowk was appointed minister without portfolio from Nepali Congress in the Ministry of Water Supply, Energy and Irrigation, and Shivaraj Adhikari of Dhading was appointed minister without portfolio, with portfolio allocation postponed.

Adhikari has now been given the Ministry of Culture and Tourism following an internal division of ministries within the Congress.

Madhusudan Paudel of Lalitpur (CPN-UML) was assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development; Dr. Dinesh Chandra Devkota of Kathmandu, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development; Bharat KC of Rasuwa, the Ministry of Forest and Environment; Jayarath Thapa of Kathmandu, the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Transport; and Bindu Shrestha, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Land, and Administration.