Key Takeaways:

• Bagmati Province reduced ministries from 14 to 8
• Nepali Congress controls five ministries, UML three
• Several ministers retained without portfolios during transition

HETAUDA, JULY 17 The Bagmati Province Government has reassigned ministerial portfolios after reducing the number of ministries from 14 to eight as part of an administrative restructuring. Province Chief Deepak Prasad Devkota approved the new division of responsibilities on Friday on the recommendation of Chief Minister Indra Bahadur Baniya, in accordance with Article 168 (9) of the Constitution. Under the new allocation, the CPN-UML has been assigned three ministries. Madhusudan Poudel will head the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forests and Environment, Dr Dinesh Chandra Devkota will lead the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development, and Bindu Shrestha has been appointed Minister for Industry, Tourism, Labour and Transport. From the Nepali Congress, Shivaraj Adhikari has been assigned the Ministry of Home Affairs, Law and Cooperatives, Kanchan Chandra Bade the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Prabhat Tamang the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning, and Krishna Kumar Tamang the Ministry of Drinking Water, Energy and Irrigation. Four UML ministers-Kiran Thapa Magar, Bharat Bahadur KC and Jayaram Thapa-and three Nepali Congress ministers-Urmila Nepal, Suresh Shrestha and Binu Rayamajhi Poudel-have been retained as ministers without portfolio. Of the eight ministries, the Nepali Congress will oversee five, including the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers, while coalition partner CPN-UML will manage the remaining three. Chief Minister Baniya said the government decided to reduce the number of ministries to streamline the provincial administrative structure. However, he said several ministers have temporarily been kept without portfolios until the restructuring process is fully implemented.