President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Friday morning administered the oath of office and secrecy to 13 new ministers.

Inducting leaders from the Nepali Congress, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has expanded the coalition Cabinet.The new ministers took the oath from the Head of the State amid a special function at the Sheetal Niwas today.Dignitaries including Vice-President Nanda Bahadur Pun, PM Dahal, Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar, deputy prime ministers and ministers, political party leaders, chiefs of constitutional bodies, representatives of Kathmandu-based diplomatic missions and high level government officials were present on the occasion.The new ministers sworn in today are:

1. Arjun Narasingha KC, Minister for Urban Development
2. Prakash Sharan Mahat, Minister for Foreign Affairs
3. Bal Krishna Khand, Minister for Defence
4. Keshav Kumar Budhathoki, Minister for General Administration
5. Gagan Kumar Thapa, Minister for Health
6. Shankar Bhandari, Minister for Forests and Soil Conservation
7. Sita Devi Yadav, Minister for Peace and Reconstruction
8. Hridaya Ram Thani, Minister for Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation
9. Romi Gauchan Thakali, Minister for Commerce
10. Deepak Giri, Minister for Irrigation
11. Nabindra Raj Joshi, Minister for Industry
12. Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation
13. Surya Man Gurung, Minister for Labour and Employment

It has been learned that the ministers would assume their office today itself. They were recommended for the ministerial berths by the party yesterday.