Bagmati Province Reduces Ministries to Eight

Makwanpur. With the start of the new financial year, 8 ministries have been established in Bagmati Province. The government has kept 8 ministries in the province from July 1 (today) by implementing the decision of May 22 to reduce the number of ministries. Although the number of ministries has decreased, the number of ministers will not decrease immediately.

Accordingly, Chief Minister Indra Bahadur Baniyan has recommended the Minister of State to the Chief Minister regarding the ministers of the government. According to the Chief Minister's Office source, 7 ministers have been given the main responsibility and 6 people have been given additional responsibility for some time.

The Chief Minister's Office source claims that preparations are being made to change the responsibilities of the ministers after the recent problem regarding power sharing is resolved. Due to the need to adjust employees according to O&M from the new financial year, 6 people have been given additional responsibility as per the previous number of ministries.

The Council of Ministers meeting of the provincial government held on May 22 had decided to reduce the 14 existing ministries in the province to 8. Accordingly, from today, along with the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers' Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Law and Cooperatives, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning, Ministry of Water Supply, Energy and Irrigation, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forest and Environment, Ministry of Health and Social Development, and Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Labor and Transport will remain.

According to Chief Minister Indra Bahadur Baniyan, the number of ministries has been reduced to 8 to make the provincial government more transparent, accountable to the public, and efficient. He said that from July 1, 8 ministries and 8 ministers will assume responsibilities according to the work allocation.

Regarding the remaining 6 ministers, arrangements have been made for them to fulfill the special responsibilities assigned to them under the Chief Minister for the time being, according to Chief Minister Baniyan. He said that this is a temporary arrangement until some work related to the organization and management survey of provincial employees is completed. He said that the reduction in the number of ministries will reduce administrative expenses and increase operational effectiveness.

‘Our main objective is to make the services provided to the public easy and transparent. Although the constitution allows us to appoint up to 22 ministers in a 110-member provincial assembly, we have decided to reduce the number of ministries for good governance,’ said Chief Minister Baniyan, ‘The remaining work of the employee administration and the O&M survey will be completed within the next week or within this month, and then the management of secretaries will also be coordinated.’

How will employees and secretaries be managed?

With the Bagmati Province government reducing the number of ministries from 14 to 8, the process of managing employees and secretaries has been initiated. Chief Secretary of the Province Baburam Adhikari said that the responsibilities of ministries and subordinate offices have been clarified according to the new work allocation rules, and now the process of finalizing employee quotas is underway.

According to Chief Secretary Adhikari, a committee has been formed under the coordination of the secretary looking after administration in the Chief Minister's office for the organization and management survey. He said that the secretaries of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are members of this committee. He said that the committee will review the O&M proposals received from various ministries and recommend them to the Council of Ministers.

‘Most ministries have completed their internal preparations. Just last Thursday, the meeting of secretaries directed to complete the O&M work by July 10,’ said Chief Secretary Adhikari, ‘After the quota is approved by the Council of Ministers, the formal appointment of employees will be done.’

He said that the management of the remaining 6 secretaries and other employees after the merger of ministries will be decided after the O&M. For now, these employees will perform their duties from their previous positions as branches of the respective ministries.

According to Chief Secretary Adhikari, employees have been assigned to their previous responsibilities as the tasks of preparing the report of the last financial year and closing the accounts must be completed within the month of July. ‘After the O&M is completed, it will be clear which secretary will be in which ministry. After that, excess secretaries will be kept in the reserve quota of the Chief Minister's office and correspondence will be made for their management elsewhere in coordination with the federal government,’ he said.