The meeting of the Standing Committee of the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), on Tuesday, has reshuffled departmental responsibilities of its senior leaders.

The party has decided to relieve ministers in the current cabinet from party responsibilities. Some leaders who were ministers in the previous cabinet have been assigned new duties.

The meeting decided to install Raghuji Pant as chief of publicity department; Ashta Laxmi Shakya as chief of women department; and Rakam Chemjong as chief of ethnic affairs department. Earlier, these departments were headed, respectively, by Pradeep Nepal, Sahana Pradhan and Prithvi Subba Gurung – all three of whom are now cabinet ministers.

Rajendra Pandey, who was Local Development Minister in the previous cabinet, has been reinstalled as chief of the party’s local bodies department. Likewise, Pradeep Gyawali, who was Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation in the previous cabinet, has been reinstalled as chief of the party’s cultural department.