Health Minister: Other Parties Follow Nepali Congress's Economic Policy

Minister for Health and Population, Pradip Paudel, has stated that no political party other than the Nepali Congress has a clear economic policy.

Speaking at a program held in Kathmandu on Saturday, Minister Paudel claimed that it was the Nepali Congress that introduced economic liberalization in Nepal, and other parties have not been able to clearly define their own economic agendas.

"Today, no one besides the Congress can say, ‘this is my economic policy.’ Everyone is following the economic path that the Congress laid," he said.

Paudel stated that liberalization had enabled many important developments in Nepal under the scope of social responsibility.

If Nepal still had the Panchayat system, would we have achieved this low maternal mortality rate? Would infant mortality have declined like this under Panchayat?” he asked, highlighting the progress Nepal has made. He added that Nepal has achieved some international milestones that other countries haven’t while acknowledging that there still is room for improvement.

Minister Paudel stressed the need to reduce current expenditure and adopt austerity measures.

He proposed reducing the number of federal parliament members from 275 to 201, halving the number of provincial assembly members and decreasing the number of local municipalities while increasing the number of wards.

He also suggested downsizing the federal cabinet from 25 to 15 ministers, and forming three-member provincial cabinets.

Paudel added that once the political structure is downsized, the administrative structure can also be streamlined.