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Speaker Devraj Ghimire has expressed belief that the Mahashivaratri festival would foster harmony, tolerance and unity among all Nepalis, thereby instilling positive energy, knowledge and peace.

Giving a message of best wishes on the occasion of the Mahashivaratri festival today, Speaker Ghimire said the festival reinforces benevolence, love, compassion and faith so that human values would be bolstered. The Mahashivaratri is the major religious festival of Hindu people. God Shiva is worshipped and fasting is observed on this occasion, he reminded.

This festival bears religious, cultural and spiritual values. As per legend, it is the wedding night of the God Shiva and Goddess Parvati.

God Shiva is remembered as the power that creates, protects and destroys as well.

"Nepal is a religiously and culturally rich country. The temples, festivals and heritages are unique features of Nepali civilization. The Mahashivarati best reflects the cultural values and tradition of Nepalis," Speaker Ghimire explained in the message of best wishes.

The Pashupatinath Temple located in Kathmandu is the destination of hundreds of thousands of Hindu people during this festival, he added.

President Ram Chandra Paudel has said it is a matter of pride for all Hindu people to have the holy Pashupati in Nepal.

Giving a message of best wishes to all Nepali sisters and brothers on the occasion of the Mahashivaratri today, President Paudel said, "God Shiva is celebrated in many vedic texts. Having the holy Pashupati area in Nepal is a matter of pride not only for Nepalis but for the entire Hindu people," he reminded.

The Head of the State wished peace, prosperity and happiness to all Hindu Nepalis on this occasion.

The existing cultures in different religious sects reflect continued faith in God Shiva, he said, adding that Nepal is the world centre for spiritual thoughts for those revering the Pashupatinath and Kirateshwor Mahadev as the form of God Shiva.

God Shiva represents both the creative and destructive forces of nature. 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' (Truth, God and Beauty) is the inspiring adage relating to God Shiva.

According to the President, the Mahashivaratri, the grand festival celebrating God Shiva, urges us to continue life in coexistence and cooperation with nature.

He also underlined the need of preserving the cultural and religious heritages, including the Pashupati area.

The Head of the State wished the festival brought spiritual awakening among all.

The E-Governance Board under the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) today unveiled the 'E-Governance Blueprint' aiming to achieve transformative changes in the existing government affairs through a digital technology, making public services paperless.

The draft of the Blueprint that was prepared on January 27 was released today, according to Board's Chief Executive Officer Dipesh Bista.

Prior to this, the Board held discussions and interactions with multi stakeholders to receive their submissions regarding the draft of the Blueprint.

The document cites the government's commitment to making the government services achievable, prompt, transparent, accountable and effective with the support of digital technology by discouraging physical presence in service delivering facilities.

The development of infrastructure, policy and legal structures required for the implementation of digital system, institutional capacity enhancement and operation of and facilitation for digital governance-related governance innovation, research and development endevours have been highlighted as the objectives of the document.

The blueprint has identified seven strategic pillars for digital transformation and they are: a clear governance framework for digital governance; legal and regulatory frameworks, and continued development of digital promoters; digital literacy and skills development; digital standards; formulation and implementation of guidelines; strengthened regional and international cooperation; and innovation, and research and development. The document has assimilated the spirit of ICT Policy of Nepal - 2072 BS, Government Enterprise Architecture Directive-2076 BS and Digital Nepal Framework-2076 BS.

Amidst increasing IT advancement and its growing attraction, the Blueprint is expected to be useful in strengthening inter-agency coordination though exchanges of data, creating pressure for making the public service delivery further transparent and effective.

E-governance blueprint was prepared in view of the arrangement of global compact, government stack as well as other international established model, as a national strategic document was necessary.

Development, strengthen and use of common infrastructures and standards, innovation and procedural simplicity in public service delivery, guarantee of safety and privacy from plan formulation, guarantee of easy accessible of services provided through digital medium, transparency and promotion of e-governance based on development were mentioned in the blueprint.

Similarly, low role of board on policy-level issue to maintain digital good governance, functional problem, problems related to management framework for e-governance, lack of citizen service centre to facilitate public service delivery have been taken as the challenges in the blueprint.

Likewise, there is challenge in formulation of digital guideline and directives and implementation, problem in strengthening regional and international cooperation, and to make the issue of public procurement further transparent and competitive.

Various activities have also been determined for next three years--preparing draft of e-governance act, restructuring of Department of Information Technology, establishment of Data Protection Authority and establishment of data exchange platform. After receiving the final draft of blueprint prepared by International consultants with the technical support of United Nations Development Programme on April 29, 2024, it was again internalized from the prospective of Nepal.

The final draft of the blueprint was received on September 30, 2024 from Nepali consultants and final shape was given to it on January 27, 2025.

The fifth meeting of E-Governance Board held under chairmanship of Chief Secretary on January 28 had decided to send the blueprint draft to concerned body for opinion.

Lawmakers have asked for the government's response in the aftermath of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s putting Nepal in the grey list.

Speaking in the Special Hour of the House of Representatives meeting today, Udaya Shumsher JBR demanded to know what the government was doing to remove Nepal from the FATF's grey list.

"Nepal has been placed in the FATF's grey list mainly due to weak regulation of the cooperative sector. What is Nepal's plan to increase the regulation of cooperatives and get out of the grey list soon? Let this be informed to the Parliament," he said.

He said Nepal should benefit from the 'double B minus' in the credit rating and it is better than most south Asian countries.

He also drew the government's attention to the delay in the reconstruction of Kanti Highway to speed up the construction of the BP highway damaged due to floods and landslide triggered by incessant rains towards September-end last year.

The lawmaker raised the issues of delay in the construction of various road sections and the risk of floods and landslides due to indiscriminate digging of roads.

He urged the government to assess the damage caused by the floods and landslides in September last year and expedite the reconstruction work in those places.

Corruption a shameful topic Nepal Communist Party (UML) lawmaker Thakur Prasad Gaire has said that the flourishing corruption in the country is a matter of shame. "Corruption, bribery and commission mongering trend is on the rise. Let's present it in parliament backed with facts and figures. Let's create conditions for action against this,” he said.

Lawmaker Gaire stressed the need of fulfilling the responsibilities of building a society with good governance and social justice.

Stating that the ordinance has opened the way for development, he said the UML was moving ahead to take the country towards socialism by ending instability and anarchy.

Lawmaker Gaire said, "We have to move forward in a stronger way to control corruption.” Nepal Communist Party (Maoist Centre) lawmaker Rekha Sharma said that it is natural to reprimand and criticize the wrongdoers in democracy and parliamentary system.

She accused the government of bulldozing the parliament by introducing the ordinances. She also alleged that the ministers amended the bills passed by the parliamentary committees.

Lawmaker Basudev Ghimire said the State should pay attention to the promotion of religious tourism as it would contribute to the country's economic growth. "Religious tourism can be promoted by showing tourists many places including Lumbini, Muktinath, Pathibhara, Pashupatinath and Manakamana in Nepal. For this, the development of physical infrastructure is necessary.” Mangal Prasad Gupta called for prevention of flood risk at Krishnanagar Municipality-12 in Kapilbastu district.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) lawmaker Anisha Nepali has demanded that the national electricity transmission line be extended to Salyan.

Call for timely completion of physical infrastructure-related works Likewise, lawmakers have called on the government to carry out the works related to construction of physical infrastructures on time.

They drew the attention of the government to this topic, citing the people were facing inconveniences due to this. Lawmakers Bhagawati Chaudhary, Bhanubhakta Joshi, Man Bahadur Gurung, Bijula Rayamajhi, Manish Jha, Mahesh Basnet, Madhav Sapkota, Mukta Kumari Yadav, Menaka Kumari Pokharel, Metmani Chaudhary, Raghuji Panta, Rama Koirala Poudel, Ram Kumar Rai and Rukmani Rana voiced this issue in the Zero Hour of the HoR session today.

Likewise, Maina Karki, Rana Kumari Balampaki Magar, Ranendra Baraili, Ranju Kumari Jha, Rajendra Kumar KC, Ram Krishna Yadav, Ram Shankar Yadav, Rupa Sosi (Chaudhary), Laxmi Tiwari and Lal Prasad Sanwa Limbu, among other lawmakers called the government's attention on a host of issues of public importance.