Prime Minister Sushila Karki on Friday expanded her Cabinet, inducting four new ministers.

President Ramchandra Paudel administered the oath of office and secrecy to Kumar Ingnam, Rajendra Singh Bhandari, Madhav Prasad Chaulagain, and Shraddha Shrestha at the Office of the President in the presence of the prime minister.

Ingnam has been assigned the responsibility of the Ministry of Land Management, Co-operatives and Poverty Alleviation; Bhandari the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security; Chaulagain the Ministry of Forests and Environment while Shrestha has been given the responsibility of the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens.

This is the fourth Cabinet expansion by Karki, who leads an interim government mandated to hold the House of Representatives elections on March 5. The Cabinet is now 14-strong.

Meanwhile, Anil Sinha, who has been in charge of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies along with the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, has also been given the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.

The responsibility of the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, which was headed by Sinha, has now been given to the newly appointed Minister Ingnam, who is an advocate.

Chaulagain, a public health expert by profession, has written a book on Karnali called ‘Sapadlaksha Karnali’.

Bhandari is a former additional inspector general of Nepal Police and Shrestha worked as a senior manager at the Tourism Marketing and Promotion Department of the Nepal Tourism Board.