Newly appointed Minister for Population and Environment Lal Babu Pandit has said the Cabinet will be expanded within a couple of days and the CPN (Maoist Centre) will also participate in the expansion.

Speaking at an interaction organised at the Reporters Club in the Capital on Friday, he assured that the Cabinet will be expanded within a couple of days.

“The Cabinet will be expanded within a couple of days and the Maoist Centre will participate in the government,” he said.

Minister Pandit further said that party unification between CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre)—first and third party in the national parliament respectively—has reached final stage, expressing his hope that the party merger will be announced soon.

“I will spend most of the time for studying policy and programmes for now as I have just took the responsibility,” he said on the occasion.

He further said that the incumbent government under the leadership of KP Sharma Oli would focus more on developing policy and programmes. “Our wish is to make the people happy and we will work tirelessly for the same,” he said.

Minister Pandit was of the opinion that the incumbent government could scrap the decisions made by the erstwhile government if they were against the law and process.

“We will look into the decisions made by the Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government. We will put on hold if the decisions are against the process.

He made it clear that there is no immediate plan for amending the constitution though it could happen in the future.