Kathmandu, March 29
The 10-party ruling alliance finalised Cabinet portfolio division after two rounds of meetings today.
Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal leader Rajendra Shrestha told mediapersons after the meeting at Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's official residence in Baluwatar that the ruling alliance partners had agreed on the number and principles applied for dividing Cabinet portfolios among alliance partners. He said the number of Cabinet portfolios the alliance decided to allocate to partners was the same as reported by media outlets.
Media outlets have reported that the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives would get eight ministries, the CPN-Maoist Centre five, and JSP-N and CPN (Unified Socialist) two each. Other alliance partners will get one ministry each.
As in the past, Rastriya Janamorcha won't join the government. Shrestha said the PM would expand his Cabinet tomorrow after getting the names of ministers from alliance partners.
Shrestha said negotiations among alliance partners were still going on about who would get what ministries. He also said the NC was told to be content with seven ministries. Shrestha said a minor change might happen in the Cabinet portfolio division as parties were still trying to get plum ministries. "Almost all parties want plum ministries and this time, four to five alliance partners have laid claim on the same ministry, the PM will do some ground work to settle this issue," Shrestha added.
He said alliance partners divided all 21 ministries among themselves and there was no ministry left for the Rabi Lamichhne-led Rastriya Swatantra Party. Shrestha also said alliance partners would finalise the common minimum programme within the next two days. He said the CMP would focus on service delivery, good governance, strengthening the federal, democratic republican order, implementation of federalism, promotion of national interests and revision and replacement of unequal treaties.
"If we are to improve governance, we will have to make laws related to e-governance. At present even those people who go to pay taxes to the government have to wait in the queue for long. This should end," Shrestha said and added that the government would bring new bills to deliver on its good governance pledge. "We have not incorporated anything in the CMP that we cannot deliver," Shrestha said in response to a journalist's query. Stating that the CMP expressed pledge to ensure full five-year term of the HoR, he said the new CMP would guide the government for the next five years.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 30, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
