Making yet another history, Nepal on Thursday appointed Lila Devi Gadtaula as the country’s first woman chief secretary. This is the first time a woman has attained the highest post in Nepal’s administrative service.

Earlier, Nepal has achieved several milestones by electing women as president, chief justice, speaker of the house, and foreign secretary. Acting on Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s proposal, the Cabinet meeting has decided to promote the acting chief secretary Gadtaula to the chief secretary role, said Minister for Information and Communication Prithvi Subba Gurung, who is also the government spokesperson.

Bidya Devi Bhandari was the first president of Nepal, and Sushila Karki was the first Chief Justice. Likewise, Onsari Gharti served as the first woman speaker in the House of Representatives. The current foreign secretary, Sewa Lamsal, is also female.

“A woman leads the nation’s civil service administration for the first time! Today’s Cabinet meeting has appointed Lila Devi Gadtaula as chief secretary. Congratulations to the newly-appointed Chief Secretary Lila Devi Gadtaula!” Prime Minister Oli wrote on Facebook.

But Gadtaula will be in the post for less than two months. According to a minister, Gadtaula will retire on August 30 due to an age limit of 58 years. The government then will have to appoint a new chief secretary.

“As soon as the Cabinet meeting began, the prime minister proposed my appointment as chief secretary,” she said at a function on Thursday. “I thanked the prime minister for giving me this opportunity.”

After the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a case against the former chief secretary Baikuntha Aryal, the previous government named Gadtaula as officiating chief secretary on June 23. She was later promoted to acting chief secretary on July 15. Before her appointment, she served as law secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office.

She began her civil service career in 1995 as a section officer.

Likewise, the Cabinet appointed Shiva Raj Adhikari as vice chairman of the National Planning Commission. He was already serving as a member of the commission since March 21, 2024. According to Minister Gurung, the meeting also appointed six members to the commission, the country’s key planning body.

Adhikari was appointed a member of the planning body from the CPN-UML quota. With Oli’s election as prime minister, he was promoted to the post of vice chairman. He is currently the chief of the Central Department of Economics at Tribhuvan University. He hails from Palpa.

Dr RP Bichha (Mahottari), Ramesh Prasad Singh (Dhanusha), Prakash Shrestha (Arghakachi), Gita Kumari Poudel Adhikari (Jhapa), Jay Bahadur Tandan (Arghakachi), and Gangadutta Awasthi (Darchula) were appointed as members of the planning commission, according to the Gurung.

Bichha served as Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s public health adviser from 2021-22, while Singh is a former secretary at the Ministry of Urban Development.

Similarly, Shrestha has worked at Nepal Rastra Bank in various capacities. Adhikari is from Jhapa and was active in CPN-UML politics and was a contender for the mayor of Damak in the last local elections, which he lost to Ram Kumar Thapa of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

Tandan worked for over 25 years as a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) expert and held various senior positions, including as member secretary, executive director, and director (Health Coordinator) in the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT).

Lastly, Awasthi has served in the government for over four decades and most recently, he was working as an expert at the Policy Research Institute, a government-backed think tank.