10 House committee chairs sworn in

KATHMANDU: Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire administered the oath of office and secrecy to newly-elected chairpersons of 10 thematic committees of the House of Representatives on Monday. All the committee chairs were elected unopposed.

Nine committee chairs were elected unopposed on Sunday itself. Abdul Khan of Janamat Party was elected chairperson of the Industry, Commerce, and Consumer Interest Committee unopposed after Ganesh Parajuli of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) withdrew his candidacy on Monday.

Parajuli registered his candidacy on Sunday as a symbolic protest after the ruling coalition and the main opposition parties distributed the posts of chairpersons of 10 parliamentary committees among themselves.

House committees and their chairpersons:

1. Finance Committee – Santosh Chalise (NC)
2. International Relations and Tourism – Raj Kishor Yadav (JSP)
3. Industry, Commerce, Labour, and Consumer Interest – Abdul Khan (Janamat)
4. Law, Justice, and Human Rights – Bimala Subedi (Maoist Center)
5. Agriculture, Cooperative, and Natural Resources – Dr Arzu Rana Deuba (NC)
6. Women and Social Affairs – Kiran Kumar Sah (CPN-UML)
7. State Affairs and Good Governance- Ram Hari Khatiwada (NC)
8. Infrastructure Development Committee – Deepak Bahadur Singh (RPP)
9. Education, Health, and IT – Bhanubhakta Joshi of CPN (Unified Socialist)
10. Public Accounts Committee – Rishikesh Pokharel (CPN-UML)