Kathmandu : Newly appointed ministers took the oath of office and secrecy on Wednesday.

President Ramchandra Paudel administered the oath to the newly appointed ministers amidst a ceremony at the Office of the President.

Those ministers who took the oath today are from CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (UML), Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and CPN (Unified Socialist).

From the CPN (Maoist Center), Narayan Kaji Shrestha took the oath as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Barsha Man Pun as the Minister for Finance, Shakti Bahadur Basnet as the Minister for Energy, Rekha Sharma as the Minister for Communication and Information Technology and Hit Bahadur Tamang as the Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation.

Similarly, from the CPN (UML), Raghubir Mahaseth took the oath as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Padam Giri as the Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Hari Upreti as the Minister for Defence, Bhagavati Chaudhari as the Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare, Rajendra Rai as the Minister for Water Supply, Damodar Bhandari as the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Jwala Kumari Sah as the Minister for Agriculture and Livestock and Balaram Adhikari as the Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation.

Likewise, from the RSP, Ravi Lamichhane took the oath as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, Dol Prasad Aryal as the Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, Biraj Bhakta Shrestha as the Minister for Youth and Sports and Sumana Shrestha as the Minister for Education, Science and Technology.

From CPN (Unified Socialist), Bhanu Bhakta Joshi took the oath as Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration and Dhana Bahadur Budha took the oath as the Minister for Urban Development.

Earlier, Dol Prasad Aryal from RSP, Hit Bahadur Tamang from CPN (Maoist Centre) and Padam Giri from UML were administered oath on Monday, March 4.

With today’s swearing in, the Council of Ministers has become a 20-member body.

The Maoist-led government, which has been advocating Dalit participation since the 10-year civil war, failed to hold back the Dalit community even for the second time.

Earlier, even when there was a coalition government with the Nepali Congress, the representation of the Dalit community was zero. Even though there is now a cabinet of 20 people, not including one Dalit community has started all round criticism.