Bagmati, Oct 28: The Bagmati province government has started preparations to reduce the number of its ministries.
The provincial government, which has decided to cut costs and adopt financial austerity, has now begun preparations to reduce the number of provincial ministries from 14 to seven.
It may be recalled here that the main opposition party, CPN (Maoist Centre), had recently submitted a memorandum to the provincial government demanding a reduction in the number of ministries.
After the submission of the memorandum from the main opposition party, a joint meeting of the parliamentary parties of the ruling Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML), had, a few days ago, agreed on reducing the number of ministries of the provincial government, and accordingly the government has started the homework to decrease the number of ministries.
Chief Minister Indra Bahadur Baniya said, “Following the agreement reached in principle to reduce the number of ministries at the joint meeting of the ruling party, the government has already formed a committee to study this matter.”
According to him, the committee is studying issues such as how many ministries to reduce, which ministries to retain, which ministries to restructure, and how to manage staff.
As the parties are in agreement on reducing the number of ministries, we have already started the process to reach a concrete decision on the matter, said Chief Minister Baniya.
He stated that since expenditure reduction and good governance are the primary priorities of the provincial government, discussions will be held with parties regarding the number of ministries and their structure to build a common understanding and bring it to a logical conclusion.
The Chief Minister said that the issue of reducing the number of ministries is purely linked to administrative reform and financial discipline, and therefore would be decided on the basis of party consensus.
