Feb 02, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government is considering to appoint a district minister to each of the 22 districts in the country to oversee the development in the districts, sources said.

According to sources, government MPs elected from each district with highest preferential votes and not received any cabinet portfolios will be appointed as District Ministers.

The district ministers will be junior to the cabinet ministers but they will have more powers than the deputy ministers.

Government sources say that the appointment of district ministers is likely to take place in April with yet another cabinet reshuffle.

District Ministers were appointed earlier during the reign of President J.R. Jayawardana as well.

Sri Lanka already has a jumbo cabinet, one of the largest cabinets of ministers in the world compared to the population. With the recent reshuffle there are 67 ministers, 28 deputy ministers and 2 project minsters.