Bhairahawa, February 2

Office of Chief Minister and Council of Ministers and three ministerial offices for Province-5 have been set up today in the temporary headquarters Butwal.

Of the nine ministries, the offices of three ministries — Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning and Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Forest —  were established at Gol Park-based under-construction six-storied building of District Labour Office.

According to Chief District Officer Hari Prasad Mainali, locations for seven ministries have been finalised so far. “While Social Development Ministry will be sited in the building of Skill Development Training Centre in Ramnagar, Physical Infrastructure Ministry will be set up in the Transportation Management Office building and Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry will be established in the Ground Water Resources Office of Hatbazar,” he said, adding they were preparing to locate another ministry at Bhairahawa’s Bhailubhuj.

As for the staff for the chief minister’s office, 21 persons including a principal secretary and two joint-secretaries have been assigned. They are supposed to arrive in Butwal today. Meanwhile, as majority of the staff assigned for the provincial assembly secretariat too are yet to report to their duty station, the same is likely to affect the Sunday’s first provincial assembly meeting. Of the total 27 employees led by a joint-secretary, only five staffers are on duty at the secretariat now. “As the staffers haven’t arrived here, we are facing difficulty in making necessary preparations for the meeting,” said Baldev Sharma Pokharel, the senior-most PA member.

“Our job is to facilitate for the meeting and train other employees but as the supposed trainees are yet to report here, we don’t know whom to train,” said secretary Surendra Aryal of the secretariat, hoping they would somehow pull off the first meeting even amidst manpower crunch.