Miscellaneous
Left alliance for keeping state cabinets small
A task force of the left alliance has agreed in principle to limit the provincial cabinet size to 10 percent of the total number of provincial assembly members.A task force of the left alliance has agreed in principle to limit the provincial cabinet size to 10 percent of the total number of provincial assembly members.
During a meeting led by Subas Nembang on Thursday, all the members of the task force agreed to keep provincial cabinets as small as possible although the constitution provides leverage for expanding them to 20 percent of the total assembly members.
The left alliance of the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) has the majority to form governments in six of the seven provinces. The Madhesi alliance of the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and the Rastriya Janata Party, Nepal is poised to form the government in Province 2. “We’ve decided not to exceed the 10 percent figure in the cabinets to be formed by the left alliance,” UML leader Surendra Pandey said after the meeting.
According to task force coordinator Nembang, the recommendations would be made to the Party Unification Coordination Committee.
As decided by the task force, the cabinet in Province 1 will have nine members, that in Province 3 will have 11 members, Province 4 assembly will have a six-member team and the Province 5 cabinet will have nine members. The 40-member Province 6 will have only four cabinet members and Province 7 five members, if the recommendations are followed.
The task force has started discussion for deciding the chief ministers, speakers and deputy speakers for the six provinces.
The Maoist Centre has laid its claim to the chief minister posts in provinces 6 and 7 while the UML would get leadership of provinces 1, 3, 4 and 5. However, the Province 6 parliamentary party of the UML has decided to take the post.