Chief Secretary of Province 6 Suresh Pradhan is staying in a guest room after giving up his official residence to Chief Minister (CM) Mahendra Bahadur Shahi.
Pradhan, who was regional administrator of the Mid West Region before being appointed chief secretary of the province, has also given up his office room to CM Shahi as the regional administration office in Surkhet has been turned into the CM's office.
Pradhan has got a room for his office in the building but he is making do with a guest room after leaving his official residence to the CM. "I left the residence within an hour after CM said he will use the residence," Pradhan told Setopati. "I am now staying in a guest room of the building division."
"It is difficult for me to keep police and assistants. I am staying in a guest room. How can I keep personal staffers?" he questioned.
CM Shahi expanded his cabinet to six on Sunday but management of residence for the ministers has yet to be completed.
Pradhan revealed that there is problem in making arrangements of residence for ministers and employees as the regional offices in the district have yet to be shut down. "The offices have yet to be completely dissolved. It is difficult to make residential arrangements for ministers and staffers," he stated. "We are making residential arrangements for the ministers at the building of irrigation division."
The ministers do not just face lack of residence but also do not have any staffer for their ministers.
Even the CM's office hardly has 10 staffers including the chief secretary now even though there are 29 positions. Chief Secretary Pradhan said most of the staffers deployed for the ministries have yet to arrive. "There is problem in lack of staffers. I am making ad hoc arrangements as far as possible," he stated.
