The meeting of the council of ministers held Monday at the prime minister’s residence in Baluwatar decided to appoint 15 acting secretaries.

According to the decision, the Finance Ministry will have two secretaries from now onwards looking into income and expenditure separately.

Some of the newly appointed acting secretaries include Ram Sarobar Dube, Tana Guatam, Tulsi Bhattarai, Sushil Shumsher Rana, Damodar Parajuli, Bhagirathi Basnet, Shankar Lal Chaudhary, Shankar Koirala, Shankar Parajuli, Bala Nanda Poudel, Shyam Prasad Mainali and Bhagawati Kafle.

The cabinet also decided to install five regional administrators from among these 15 persons. The ministries of these acting secretaries will be finalized by Monday evening.

Most of the ministries have been operating without secretaries for several months.

The cabinet also approved four bills including a bill to amend the Nepal Rastra Bank Act and Insolvency Act. However, the much awaited bill for amendment of the army act was not even discussed.

According to Local Development Minister Rajendra Pandey, members of the cabinet on the occasion objected to the views of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala that the king should be given space. Prime Minister Koirala during a meeting with the industrialists on Sunday had said that king should be given space in democracy to avoid danger of destruction and violence out of frustration. Pandey told reporters that it was the prime minister’s personal view but not of the government.

The cabinet also discussed the progress of the peace talks with the Maoists. The government peace talks team is holding internal discussion after the cabinet meeting.