Kathmandu. Prime Minister Balendra Shah has started preparations for changes in his secretariat along with the ministers. A member of his secretariat said that Prime Minister Shah’s plan is to make the officials and members of the secretariat who came to the central working committee from the first convention of the National Independent Party to focus on party work.
Prime Minister Shah’s political adviser Asim Shah has been elected as co-general minister, while policy administration and good governance adviser Sudeep Dhakal and personal deputy secretary Prakriti Dhakal have become central members.
Prime Minister Shah plans to release them from the secretariat and focus on party work. The member of the secretariat claimed that he also wanted to dismiss Chief Personal Secretary Subas Sharma.
A member of the secretariat told Nepalkhabar that the role of Asim and Sudeep in the passport printing contract case has been raised, while the activities of Subas Sharma are also not satisfactory to Prime Minister Shah. According to those members, Prime Minister Shah, who has decided to set up his own team above the secretary in the ministry, is also doing his homework to build a team worthy of the secretariat.
According to the decision of the cabinet meeting, each minister can appoint 3 to 5 advisers like secretaries. On 2 Baisakh, the cabinet meeting decided to create a personal secretariat of 9 people including the chief personal secretary. Chief Secretary Sumanraj Aryal has sent the report of the decision to the relevant ministry for the implementation of the said decision.
“I am not aware of the removal of those who are currently in the Secretariat,” said an official of the Prime Minister’s Office. There has been a signal from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat that the responsibility can be given to a person who has the right to work. I am also talking to some people.
He says that Prime Minister Shah, who is ruthless towards the existing employees, is positive to bring some retired former secretaries to the secretariat. Some experts may come from outside. However, there are plans to bring some former secretaries to the secretariat, he said.
He did not want to mention the possible name of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. On the other hand, the team of joint secretaries Kavindra Nepal and Shivadevi Dahal, the heads of the results management division of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office, is collecting the progress information of the ministry.
We have requested progress details of the government’s 100-point agenda from the ministries. Some have been sent by the ministry, some are in the process of coming from the ministry. Now we are working on it,” said a joint secretary. He said that the performance evaluation report of the government will be made public by the end of June.
Now we are taking the report of how much work has been done according to the hundred-point list. It will be made public by Sunday or Monday,” he said. “A separate report of the government’s performance evaluation will be made public by mid-June.”
The member of Prime Minister Shah’s secretariat said that the minister will be changed based on the 100-point list and performance evaluation. “The Prime Minister is clear about dismissing ministers who have not been able to fulfill the government’s 100-point agenda and whose performance evaluation is not good,” said the member of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.
Prime Minister Shah currently holds the additional charge of the Ministry of Defence. In the same sense, Swarnim Wagle, Shishir Khanal in Foreign Affairs, Sudhan Gurung in Home Affairs, Sunil Lamsal in Infrastructure Development, Virajbhakt Shrestha in Energy, Sasmit Pokharel in Education, Mahavir Pun in Science Technology and Innovation, Sovita Gautam in Law, Pratibha Rawal in General Administration, Ramji Yadav in Labor, Nisha Mehta in Health, Geeta Chaudhary in Agriculture, Gauri Kumari Yadav in Industry, Sita Wadi in Women and Children, Khadak Raj Paudel in Tourism and Vikram Timilsina is in charge of Minister of Information and Communication.
Among the 16 ministers in the Balen cabinet, the prime minister is dissatisfied with the performance of health minister Nisha Mehta, agriculture minister Geeta Chaudhary and industry minister Gauri Kumari Yadav, information and communication minister Vikram Timilsin, and women and children minister Sita Wadi. Mehta, Chaudhary and Timilsina became ministers on Chait 13, while Gauri took over as minister on Chait 27.
Lately, Finance Minister Wagle and Foreign Minister Khanal are also seen clashing with the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. Wagle and Khanal, who have the strong ‘backup’ of party president Ravi Lamichhane, are unlikely to change.
There is a discussion within the RSVP that Chairman Lamichhane promised some MPs as ministers to get the aspirants of office bearers back at the RSVP convention. The leaders of RSVP say that preparations are being made to make MP Ganesh Parajuli, Samishka Baskota and others ministers.