Three new ministers of Lumbini Province sworn in

LUMBINI: Three newly appointed ministers of the Lumbini Provincial Government were sworn in on Thursday.

Province Chief Krishna Bahadur Gharti administered the oath of office to Minister for Social Development Janmajaya Timalsina, Minister for Forests and Environment Devkaran Kalwar, and Minister for Internal Affairs and Law Adesh Kumar Agrawal during a ceremony on Thursday morning.

Timalsina and Kalwar are from the Nepali Congress (NC), while Agrawal represents the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP).

With this, the number of ministers in the Lumbini Provincial Government has reached 11. Chief Minister Chet Narayan Acharya of the CPN-UML is yet to appoint one more minister to his cabinet. His cabinet currently has five members each from CPN-UMl and NC, and one from JSP.

Ruling coalition partners Nagarik Unmukti Party and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party have been allocated one ministry in the provincial cabinet. However, although the two parties have agreed to share the ministry on a rotational basis, they have yet to reach a consensus on who will take the position first.