A meeting of the cabinet approved the amendment in the law regarding the heir to throne on Monday.

The amended law, which will be presented at the House of Representatives for endorsement, has provision to make the first child- irrespective of the sex – of the King as heir to the throne. Earlier, only the eldest son of the King would be entitled to the throne.

As per the amended law, a Special Committee under the Prime Minister will take decisions to the accession to the throne, which will have to be passed by the parliament.

The cabinet meeting held at Prime Minister GP Koirala’s residence also decided to scrap the allowances given to the relatives of the King, news reports said. Now on, allowances will be provided only to the king, queen, crown prince, crown princess and queen mother.

This is another cut in the royal expenses after the government’s budget 2006/07. The government in the annual budget downsized the yearly expenditure of the royal palace by 45.8 percent, limiting it to Rs 219.6 million from Rs 405 million last year. The palace had received an extra amount of Rs 340 million last year from the previous government on different headings.

The new decisions comes in line with the historic proclamation made by the parliament in May this year.