UPDATE GOVT. EXPANSION COMPLETE Kathmandu, 18 March: Eight ministers, including a woman, have been inducted in an expanded cabinet that now has 11 members as envisaged in a political agreement to appoint Khil Raj Regmi government hief. The government expansion is now complete with Monday’s government expansion. The next priority of the Chairman the Interim Election Council Regmi is to appoint election commissioners to conduct second constituent assembly elections in last week of June. Oaths of office and secretary was administered to the new ministers in the presence of the president. Shanker Koirala, former energy secretary, was appointed the Minister for Finance and Industry and Supplier; he was joint secretary in ministry of tourism. Regmi was installed as head of a three-member interim election council Thursday. had made a three-member cabinet with only two ministers on board. One woman has been inducted in the government. One minister has been given responsibility for two ministries. Madesh leader Sharat Singh Bhandari called the Regmi government a ‘puppet’ of four major political players UCPN Maoist, Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and United Democratic Madhesi Front who formed a high-level eight-member political mechanism to direct the government. NEW MINISTERS: 1. Madhav Paudel, Minister for Education, Information and Communication and General Administration 2. Tek Bahadur Thapa Gharti Minister for Agriculture, Forest and Soil Conservation 3. Ridhhi Baba Pradhan, Women, Children and Land Reformation. 4. Shankar Koirala, Minister for Finance and Industry and Supplier. 5. Ram Kumar Shrestha, Minister for Youth, Peace and Tourism 6. Umakanta Jha, Minister for Energy, Science and Technology and Irrigation, 7. Chhabi Raj Panta, Minister for Physical Planning and Cooperative 8. Bidhyadhar Mallik, Minister for Federal Affairs, Local Development, Health and Population nnnn