KATHMANDU, July 26 (Xinhua)--- Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has expanded his cabinet, inducting 19 new ministers on Wednesday.
This is the first time Prime Minister Deuba, who is also the president of ruling Nepali Congress, expanded his Cabinet after he came to power on June 7.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly-inducted ministers at a special ceremony held at the Presidential Palace Sheetal Niwas in the capital.
Senior leaders from various political parties, top bureaucrats, foreign diplomats among others attended the ceremony.
The total strength of the Deuba-led Cabinet has reached 27.
The new ministers include 10 from the Nepali Congress, six from the CPN (Maoist Center), two from People's Rights Forum (Democratic) and one from Nepal Communist Party (United).
Mohan Bahadur Basnet was appointed the Minister for Information and Communications. Basnet is also taking the charge of an official government spokesman.
Bir Bahadur Balayar became the Minister for Physical Infrastructure while Ambika Basnet was appointed the Minister for Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation.
Mahendra Yadav and Min Biswakarma were appointed the Minister for Drinking Water and Minister for Commerce respectively.
Ramkrishna Yadav was appointed the Minister for Agriculture, Yagya Bahadur Thapa appointed as the Minister for Law, Sanjaya Gautam as the Minister for Irrigation and Rajan KC became the Minister for Youth.
Bhimsen Das Pradhan is the new Minister for Defense. Giriraj Mani Pokharel is the new Minister for Health while Tek Bahadur Basnet will be overseeing the Ministry of General Administration.
Mahendra Bahadur Shahi is the new Minister for Energy. Shivakumar Mandal became the Minister for Supplies.
Asha Koirala and Santa Kumar Chaudhary were appointed as the Minister for Social Welfare and Minister for Livestock respectively.
Jitendra Narayan Dev became the Tourism Minister and Gopal Dahit got appointment as the Minister for Land Reform. Similarly, Mithila Yadav became the Minister for Environment.
Deuba was sworn-in as Nepal's 40th prime minister on June 7, a day after he was elected in the Parliament with the support of nearly two-thirds of the members of the 593-strong Parliament.
This is the the fourth time Deuba is at the helm of the government in the Himalayan nation.
