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The new Prime Minister of Nepal, Balendra Shah, has announced a 100-point governance reform agenda, designed to completely change the face of Nepal’s public institutions. While some feel that this is the fresh air that the Nepalese have been longing for, others are of the view that the 37 year old is too ambitious and at times too eager to impress.
There are worrying signs that, backed by a brute majority in parliament, the former Rapper may act impulsively and clash with the entrenched social and bureaucratic order.
The government is to implement delivery-based governance to make overall government performance efficient, effective, measurable, and accountable, with a focus on bringing direct improvements to people’s lives.
Each ministry will prepare and implement a work plan for its seven core areas, specifying key tasks, timelines, responsible officials, and performance indicators. Progress on these tasks will be submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office for review, evaluation, and periodic reporting in accordance with established standards and procedures.
The government said that within 15 days, it intends to officially acknowledge historical injustices, discrimination, and deprivation faced by marginalised and excluded communities from the State, society, and institutional structures. Based on the acknowledgement, the government will prepare a framework for social justice, inclusivity, and reconciliatory integration, including formal apologies and related reform measures led by the state,” states another point in the priority list.
The work plan also aims to address the long-standing problem of inquiry reports remaining largely unimplemented. Within 30 days, recommendations from past reports will be implemented through legal, administrative, and procedural measures, including administrative reforms, restructuring, and effective enforcement.
To tackle administrative inefficiency caused by an excessively large number of ministries, the government has decided to reduce the number of federal ministries to 17 within 30 days.
The work plan also calls for reforms across civil service agencies to address duplication, delays, and unnecessary procedures that slow and inefficient public service delivery.
Through Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), the government says that the overall service delivery mechanism will be simplified, made faster and more results-oriented. Necessary standards, monitoring mechanisms and operational procedures will be prepared or revised within 30 days. Where legal amendments are required, draft bills will be prepared within the same timeframe.
The directive states that civil servants, teachers, professors, and other personnel in national service positions will no longer be allowed to directly or indirectly affiliate with political parties, groups, or interest centres. Any violation will invite strict departmental action in accordance with existing laws.
Among other initiatives, the government plans to introduce free “Blue Bus” services for women in all seven provinces to ensure safe transportation.
According to the 20-page policy document, at least 25 buses will be brought into operation within the first 100 days.
From the upcoming academic session, internal examinations for students up to Grade 5 will be discontinued. The government says alternative assessment systems will be introduced to ensure that students are not subjected to unnecessary psychological stress.
In the health sector, the government will strictly enforce the requirement that 10 percent of beds in public and private hospitals be provided free of charge. This will ensure access for poor, helpless and abandoned patients.
There is a danger that with his technocratic approach (he is a structural engineer by education) Shah might ride roughshod over long-established democratic institutions. The government has announced the abolition of all party-affiliated trade unions in government bodies, aiming to make public administration free from political influence. But critics say that the move risks weakening employees’ protections.
Another particularly disturbing element in the 100-point programme is a ban on political parties participating in student unions. The government has removed political student unions from campuses and replaced them with non-partisan “Student Councils” within 90 days.
The ban on the politicisation of student and university unions has sparked sharp criticism from academics and student leaders, as it is in these institutions that young people learn about the institutions of modern democracy and the work of democratic institutions in the country.
If political parties do not guide or mentor younger ones, including students, how can ideologically informed politicians emerge in Nepal? Through the political parties out in the guise of cleansing a system, is tantamount to throwing the baby with the bathwater.
The government has encroached on the constitutional right of any group, including government employees, to freely form unions and associations. Unions exist to prevent the concentration of power. They help fight exploitation.
The Nepal Student Union, affiliated with the Nepali Congress, warned the government against dissolving student organisations. The step would backfire, the union’s President Dujang Sherpa said. He reminded Balen Shah that it was the student unions that had helped create space for emerging public figures such as Balen Shah and Rabi Lamichhane , the head of the ruling Rashtriya Swantantra Party (RSP).
He further pointed out that the Supreme Court had recognised the Nepal Student Union as a legitimate body.
However, Balen Shah’s cabinet is bristling with youth, representing Gen.Z, which thrust him into power. Ten to 15 cabinet ministers of his 16-member cabinet are under 40.
Moving fast on his 100- point plan, Balen Shah on Thursday sacked the Minister for Labour Deepak Kumar Sah on the recommendation of his party, the RSP. Sah had misused his office to appoint his wife, Junu Shrestha, as a member of the Health Insurance Board.
Ex-Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak were detained in connection with the September 2025 crackdown on the Gen protests. Others earmarked for arrest include Home Secretary Gokarna Mani Dawadi, Armed Police Force chief Raju Aryal, former head of the National Investigation Department Hutaraj Thapa, and then-chief district officer of Kathmandu Chhabi Rijal.
During the youth-led protests, 77 people were killed, and government and private property worth billions were destroyed.
