The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law was merged into the Chief Minister's Office, reducing the number of ministries to 7.
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The Karnali provincial government has merged the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law into the Chief Minister's Office. The cabinet meeting held on Monday morning decided to merge the ministries, reducing the number of ministries to seven.
Yamalal Kandel, who was appointed Chief Minister on Chaitra 12, 2080, had kept the ministry under his own management. The ministry had been working in areas such as peace and law, security, disaster management, and communication. With the merger of the ministry with the Chief Minister's Office, the posts of 25 employees, including ministers and secretaries, have been cut. In the current fiscal year, about 300 million rupees were allocated for the ministry. The administrative expenses of the ministry alone were about 30 million rupees.
'Most of the nature of the ministry's work was similar to that of the Chief Minister's Office. Since there were no subordinate bodies and the minister was also the Chief Minister himself, the merger was easy,' said Karnali Province Government Spokesperson and Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives Binod Kumar Shah, 'Now the work of the ministry will be more systematic and efficient.'
The Karnali government had formed a four-member high-level committee under the coordination of former secretary Laxman Aryal on April 20 for administrative restructuring. After studying for about two months, the committee submitted a report to the government on July 20 with recommendations including reducing the number of 8 ministries to 6, abolishing some directorates and offices, and reducing the number of employees to 2,500.
Government spokesperson Shahi said that the ministries were merged for the implementation of the report. ‘This decision has reduced administrative expenses by at least Rs 30 million,’ he said, ‘now it has become easier to gradually implement the report.’ He informed that the work division regulations of the provincial government were also changed in Monday’s cabinet meeting.
According to the Chief Minister’s Office, the number of employees in both ministries has now been reduced from 101 to 76. Kamal Lamsal, associate professor at Madhya Paschim University, said that the government has taken a positive decision to cut expenses and manage employees. 'This has solved the dilemma in the division of work between ministries, unnecessary expenses and employees have been managed,' he said, 'Since there are no other bodies directly subordinate to both ministries, the adjustment seems to make the work easier.'
Karnali initially had 7 ministries. But during the time of the then Chief Minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi in 2078 Baisakh, the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy Development was split to arrange the division between the then Maoists and the Nepali Congress. Again in 2079 Magh, the ministry was merged with Physical Infrastructure. But the Council of Ministers meeting on 2080 Baisakh 7 split the ministry again and formed the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Urban Development and the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy Development.
Former federal government deputy secretary Khamba Prasad Thani says that splitting and merging ministries in Karnali is not a new thing. ‘Now that the ministry is with the Chief Minister, it was merged. If the parties do not agree on the division of power, it is impossible to say when it will split again,’ he said. ‘Rather, the government needs to streamline service delivery and development and give the people a sense of belonging to the province.’
