In a secretariat meeting of the ruling CPN-UML held on Wednesday, Prime Minister and party chairman KP Sharma Oli briefed secretariat members on the political situation after the formation of the coalition with the Nepali Congress, the government's effectiveness and weaknesses, and his China visit in the first week of December, among other issues.

Immediately after Oli's briefing, the secretariat members also expressed their views on the latest situation, said a UML secretariat member. The secretariat meeting also discussed the agenda of the central committee meeting which would be held on January 5 and 6.

The secretariat meeting stressed the need for giving momentum to the government by expediting service delivery. The meeting also suggested reforms to make the government's functioning more effective, according to the secretariat member.

An eight-member task force formed by the Congress and the UML on November 6 to strengthen ties between two parties decided to form a six-member committee to work on the issue.

The Congress has appointed Semanta Dahal, Arun Paudel, and Pratap Paudel as members to suggest on service delivery. In contrast, former chief secretary of the government Lila Gadtaula and senior advocates Kedar Koirala and Rajendra Ghimire were appointed by the UML.

“The prime minister's office will be our secretariat, and we are assigned to start our work from Thursday,” a service delivery task force member said. “The main job of the task force is to give policy advice to minimise hassle related to service delivery.”

The task force formed to strengthen the two-party relations has Vice-president Purna Bahadur Khadka, General Secretary Gagan Thapa, Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, and Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba from the Congress. UML senior vice-chair Ishwor Pokharel, vice-chair and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel, General Secretary Shankar Pokharel, and political adviser to the prime minister and Deputy General Secretary Bishnu Rimal are the party’s members.

Congress vice-chair Khadka said that during the task force meeting, they discussed ways to address the issue of amending the constitution and other pertinent matters.

“The two parties have formally entered the agenda of amending the constitution and are considering forming a mechanism for the same shortly,” Khadka said.

Amending the constitution was a key promise of the seven-point agreement signed between Nepal’s two largest political parties, the Congress and the UML, in early July while forming the government led by Oli. The two parties' meeting on Tuesday, which lasted almost three hours, also discussed potential candidates to lead the constitutional amendment process.

Likewise, the two ruling parties have formed a separate task force to speed up the passage of bills through Parliament.

Every party has parliamentary leaders, chief whip and whip in Parliament who look after issues related to the bill, Khadka said. “Besides, we also have various committees in Parliament for the same.”