Kathmandu, November 15 The Cabinet today decided to make three appointments to the prime minister’s secretariat. A meeting of the Council of Ministers held at Baluwatar appointed Lal Shankar Ghimire as economic adviser to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. The meeting also appointed Surya Thapa as press adviser and Gajendra Thapalia as development adviser to the prime minister, according to sources. The new appointments were made after the PM approved resignations of some of his aides, including Kundan Aryal as press adviser, Media Coordinator Chetan Adhikari, Photojournalist Krishna Paudel, Public Relations Adviser Achyut Mainali, Development Adviser Ghanashyam Bhattarai and decoder Udaya Pokharel. However, the prime minister’s Information Technology Adviser Asgar Ali, Foreign Affairs Adviser Rajan Bhattarai and Chief Adviser Bishnu Rimal had not furnished their resignation, although it was reported earlier that all the members of the secretariat had resigned en masse. Outgoing secretariat members had reportedly tendered their resignation after the prime minister criticised them and asked them to resign. A member of the PM’s secretariat had earlier told THT that the resignations were tendered to help the PM form a new team. The source added that the PM had sought their resignations. The prime minister’s latest move is seen as a prelude to an imminent Cabinet reshuffle as some Nepal Communist Party leaders see it as a message to Cabinet ministers to voluntarily quit so that the PM could form a new Cabinet to make the government’s performance more effective. READ ALSO:

• Cabinet appoints new members to PM’s Secretariat