Kathmandu, Sept. 10: The government has approved the participation of a Nepali delegation led by Prime Minister Balendra Shah in the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.

A Cabinet meeting held Thursday approved Prime Minister Shah’s visit to the United States to attend the General Assembly from September 22 to 26.

The meeting also decided to form a Nepali negotiation team to participate in the Nepal-India Inter-Governmental Sub-Committee meeting to be held in New Delhi.

The Cabinet further granted in-principle approval to draft a bill aimed at controlling the growing problem of unfair financial transactions, commonly known as loan sharking.

As part of the identification of beneficiaries for social security and targeted programmes, the government approved a list of 17,438 poor households across 27 local levels in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Saptari and Dang districts.

The government also appointed officials to fill vacant positions in constitutional and administrative bodies. Dr Hariprasad Lamsal of Bhaktapur was appointed chairperson of the Teachers Service Commission, while Ram Sharan Sapkota of Makwanpur was appointed a member and Bishnu Ghimire Rimal of Kathmandu a woman member.

On the administrative front, two joint secretaries were promoted to the secretary level. Binod Bahadur Kunwar was promoted to secretary and appointed chief secretary at the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers of Lumbini Province.

Similarly, Uttarkumar Khatri was promoted to secretary and appointed chief secretary at the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers of Sudurpaschim Province.