Kathmandu, July 17, 2006

The cabinet meeting held today at the Prime Minister’s residence decided to amend 23 laws and scrap 16 laws that contradict with the House of Representatives (HoR) declaration of May 18.

The government has also made appointments at various government agencies and corporations. The cabinet, however, did not take any decision on filling the vacancies of ambassadors, and on appointing secretaries and vicechancellor, rector and registrar of Tribhuvan University.

The meeting approved the formation of an interim statute drafting committee headed by former justice Laxman Prasad Aryal and the National Monitoring Committee on Code of Conduct for Ceasefire headed by Prof Birendra Prasad Mishra.

Minister of State for Information and Communications Dilendra Prasad Badu told the media that the meeting also accepted the resignations of chairman and members of the National Human Rights Commission and Chief Election Commissioner and his deputies. They had quit after the HoR tabled an impeachment motion against them on charges of inefficiency.

The council of ministers appointed Bidur Prasad Poudel chairman of the Bagmati Sewerage Improvement Committee, Tej Prakash Pandit executive chairman of Gorkhapatra Corporation, Mitharam Dukhi and Jaya Shankar Mahat chairman and general manager of Rastriya Samachar Samiti, respectively.

‘Budget sets out to satisfy all sectors’

At a time when the question of longevity of the current seven party alliance (SPA) government is being raised, economists, former finance ministers and business sector people have termed the budget for fiscal year 2006-07 as an effort to ‘satisfy all’.

Resources have been scattered on different sectors instead of using them in a consolidated manner, despite the economy awaiting an effective revival package. Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, finance minister, admitted the fact that resources have been allocated so that people can boost economic activities in rural areas.

The budget has tried to encourage economic activities in the underprivileged sections of society.

Doubling the budget for village development committees is mainly aimed at boosting rural economy, said Dr Mahat, speaking at a post-budget interaction programme jointly organised by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and Nepal Economic and Media Society (NECOMIS).

At the interaction programme attended by over 200 experts including former finance ministers, former vicechairmen of the National Planning Commission (NPC), senior economists and business sector experts, Dr Mahat urged all concerned to help the government in the recovery of defaulted loans.