Janakpurdham/Hetauda, Feb 28

The cabinets of provinces 2 and 3 were expanded today.

In Province 2, Governor Ratneshwarlal Kayastha administered the oath of office and secrecy to newly appointed Minister for Internal Affairs and Law Gyanendra Yadav, Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Shailendra Sah, Minister for Social Development Nawalkishor Sah and Minister for Industry and Forest Ram Naresh Raya. While ministers for internal affairs and law and agriculture and cooperatives are from the Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal, two others represent Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal.

Newly-appointed Minister of State for Internal Affairs Saroj Kumar Singh, Minister of State for Agriculture Yogendra Yadav and Minister of State for Finance Usha Kumari Yadav were sworn in by Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut in the presence of Governor Kayastha. All state ministers are from FSF-N.

With today’s expansion, the Province 2 Cabinet has 10 ministers. Earlier, Bijaya Yadav and Jitendra Sonal were inducted as finance minister and physical infrastructure development minister on the day the CM was sworn in.

The swearing-in ceremony was held at Janakpur-based governor’s office. Even the state ministers were sworn in at the governor’s office due to lack of space at the CM’s office.

The Province 3 Cabinet, meanwhile, also got full shape today with Chief Minister Dormani Poudel appointing four ministers. Yubaraj Dulal of CPN-MC was appointed social development minister, while UML got three ministerial berths — Kailash Dhungel as financial affairs and planning minister, Dawadorje Lama as cooperatives minister and Arun Nepal as industry, forest and tourism minister.

Governor Anuradha Koirala administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly-appointed ministers.

Earlier, CPN-MC’s Shalikram Jamarkattel was inducted into the Cabinet as internal affairs and law minister and CPN-UML’s Keshav Sthapit got the physical

infrastructure development portfolio.

“We’ve formed a seven-member Cabinet for now. It can be expanded to 11 members if need be,” CM Poudel told THT.