Communications Ministry shares performance and achievements of a month
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has made public the activities it carried out in the last one month.
Since the assumption of office by Minister Dr Bikram Timilsina, the ministry argued it made significant improvements in public service delivery.
The 100-point good governance agenda announced by the government was put into practice by the ministry with introduction of new tasks and intensification of delayed ones.
The ministry claimed it intensified the works relating to printing smart driving licenses, courier service, expansion of telecommunications, reform in cyber security and administrative reform.
The minister took special initiative to end the protracted printing of smart driving license cards. Now, the government has planned to hand over the licenses within 24 hours since the receipt of data from the Transport Management Department in case of new applicants.
The cards are printed in the Security Printing Press.
As per agreement, 1.2 million copies of license cards have been printed.
The department and center have made an agreement to print 1.7 million more license cards by the end of this fiscal year.
Similarly, the center has printed three million copies of postage stamps and provided them to the Postal Service Department.
A concept of 'government courier service' has been forwarded to modernize postal service.
This scheme has been enforced in Kalikot, Sindhupalchok, Banke, Kaski, Sunsari, Makawanpur, Myagdi, Siraha, Dadeldhura and Gulmi districts for the initial phase and is being expanded to others gradually.
The postal code having five digital is getting upgraded to seven digital as per federal system so that citizens could be provided service at their convenience.
The performance list goes to improvement in telecommunication service by making it friendly to consumers.
All packages of pre-paid mobile service have been expanded to 30 days from 28 days.
The 'pay and you go' system has been revised to ensure all-time mobile functioning.
The ministry decided to provide 800 MHZ additional bands to enhance 4G quality.
Expansion of 5G is also charted out. One time KYC and all online have been forwarded.
Nagarik App has entered into a digital Nepal campaign where various services relating to Nepal Police, engineering, public service, exams, certificates and entrance papers of university are available.
The Passport Department and the Transport Department are interlinked to avoid dual and burdensome data collection.
The government websites are being upgraded to the international standard for security and accessibility.
As many as 11,000 betting Apps and websites are disbanded through Nepal Telecommunications Authority.
The government's scheme 'zero pending file' is in place to give impetus to ending plodding administrative works. The new performance indicators of employees is another feature in this sector.
Agreement has been received in principle from the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary on draft bills of Information Technology and of Cyber Security.
These will create a solid legal base for digital governance and prevention of cyber crimes.
New programs on Athpahariya Rai and Mudiyari languages have been launched in Radio Nepal, while installation of high quality optical fibres from Nepal Television studio to parliament building is another move to digital drive.
The Ministry began a process to conduct monitoring of various frauds relating to foreign employment via social networking sites.
Policy reform, improvement in technical service and direct benefits to citizens are highly prioritized by Minister Timilsina.
National nutrition estimation campaign begins
A 15-day national nutrition estimation campaign has kicked off across the country.
The Ministry of Health and Population launched the campaign under the slogan of 'Timely detection and treatment: A base of malnutrition-free generation'.
It is enforced among the children from six months to 59 months.
Status of malnutrition would be ascertained with the supervision in order to ensure timely treatment.
The children suffering from malnutrition would be categorized into three levels- high, moderate and low risk, which would be helpful to set future programs on health and nutrition of children.
The drive that begun on April 28 gives a real picture at local, district and province levels, according to Ministry Spokesperson Dr Prakash Budhathoki.
The campaign will be realized through health and immunization centers, community clinics, ward offices, community building and early child development centers.
The state of malnutrition is ascertained by measuring children's height and weight and circumference of arms. The health workers mobilized for the task would collect necessary details with the use of health gadgets.
Information and awareness on the national drive is spread to every household via radio at local levels, while women community health workers would be mobilized actively.
It is said that Nepal is suffering from three aspects of malnutrition in Nepal- under-nutrition, obesity and micro nutrient deficiencies, thereby exposing health and food security concerns.
The Health Ministry has requested one and all to make the malnutrition estimation drive successful.
Chinese envoy pays courtesy call on Speaker Aryal
Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Zhang Maoming paid a courtesy call on Speaker of the House of Representatives Dol Prasad Aryal.
During the meeting held on Tuesday, they exchanged views on bilateral relations, parliamentary collaboration, development partnership and regional and international issues.
Sharing that Nepal-China relation is historical, friendly and based on panchasheel, Speaker Aryal laid emphasis on further strengthening the relations, according to Speaker Aryal's Secretariat.
The government is clear on the issue not to allow use of Nepali territory against China, he opined, reiterating that Nepal is fully committed to the 'One-China Policy'.
The Speaker underscored that the incumbent government has focused its attention for development, good governance, technology promotion and to end corruption, expecting Chinese government's support and cooperation to it.
Expressing concern over increasing conflict in the world, he argued that Nepal is always in favour of peace, dialogue and collaboration.
Similarly, Ambassador Zhang conveyed the best wishes message and handed over the congratulation letter from the National People's Congress, China.
The Ambassador expressed commitment to continuously support Nepal's sovereignty, independence and regional integrity.
The Chinese Envoy mentioned that China was ready to collaborate in infrastructure, connectivity, border management and development projects under Nepal-China collaboration, adding electric vehicles were supported by the Federal Parliament Secretariat.
Ambassador Zhang extended an invitation to the Speaker, lawmakers and parliamentary office-bearers to visit China.
622 government vehicles withdrawn
The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has initiated a process to withdraw vehicles from employees and office-bearers, who have been using government vehicle facilities against existing laws.
The Office has so far pulled back 622 government vehicles from different ministries, their subordinate bodies and constitutional commissions.
The preliminary investigation conducted by the Prime Minister's Secretariat found the fact that though there is a legal provision that only gazetted first class officers or office-bearers above them get vehicle facility, lower-level employees are using government vehicles.
In the course of investigation, the details of vehicles used by employees and office-bearers of all government bodies were demanded.
Based on the details, the OPMCM had on April 23 directed all ministries, their subordinate bodies and constitutional commissions to immediately return such vehicles.
The government took this step in order to reduce financial burden taking place in the name of fuel, maintenance and vehicle facility.



