Submit your Article

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said the social security scheme would be run as an intensive campaign by integrating it under the integrated concept for receiving the expected returns on the development of the economy.

Structures would be created for implementing the scheme in an integrated way for its sustenance and removing dual benefits while making many social security allowance schemes being based on contribution, he said while addressing the inaugural of the social security plan for workers and self-employed people in the informal sector at an event organized here by the Social Security Fund on Wednesday.

"The Fund is an important mechanism of the state for neglected, suppressed and oppressed people of the society. The mechanism has the ability of increasing entire production by making the internal production cycle active. On the other hand, hopes of workers are there in such a fund. The scheme helps in the context when workers in the informal sector have to work until their body allows and they have to retire empty-handed from the job."

The constitution cannot be fully implemented until workers' right to social security is implemented, he said.

Stating that Nepali migrant workers have been covered by the social security scheme, he assured of fully implementing the government's campaign to bring all workers under the scheme.

Stating that guaranteeing the rights of workers including social security was a mandatory condition for establishment of socialism-oriented political and economic system as envisaged by the constitution of Nepal, Prime Minister Dahal argued that social security was not a general concept.

"It would rather create an enabling environment for all citizens to avail education, healthcare services, employment, concession and rewards without discrimination," asserted Dahal.

Pressing for effective implementation of the 'Contribution-based Social Security Act-2074 BS' to make social security sustainable and organized, he pledged to mobilize regulatory agencies to oversee implementation of the Act keeping in view that no citizens are deprived of benefits of social security act.

Furthermore, he said efforts would be coordinated for registration of the establishment, renewal, taxation system, participation in procurement process among others to ensure that workers from formal sectors are affiliated with the Fund.

To enhance capacity of the Fund and to maintain its credibility and ownership, he also assured to rope in the government offices' workers working on the basis of contract and daily wages in the Fund.

He said that the government was serious towards enforcing the co-contribution of the State for the welfare of workers in the informal sector.

Similarly, Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Sharat Singh Bhandari articulated readiness of the government to revise and implement various plans unveiled by the Fund to contribute towards poverty reduction and increase attraction of the labor force in the labor market.

Likewise, Chief Secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal suggested that the Fund should prepare to maintain record and manage the statistics of the Fund keeping in view the increasing number of its beneficiaries.

Joint Trade Union Labor Coordination Committee (JTUCC) President Binod Shrestha underscored practical implementation of labor rights issues provisioned in the constitution, law and policy.

Representatives from employer companies and international labor organizations were present in the program.

The detailed project report (DPR) of the Kathmandu- Tarai/Madhesh Fast Track (Expressway) has been amended.

According to Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Prakash Jwala, the document has undergone revisions in a way that it would result in the reduction of both cost and length for the road project.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday decided to revise the DPR for the expressway.  With the revision, the project cost is to decrease by Rs 2 billion.

Following the amendment, it is estimated to cost Rs 211 billion.  The integration of a tunnel into the project contributed to a reduction in the project's overall length and subsequently in its cost as well.

The project is being undertaken with the supervision of the Nepali Army.

The project began on April 25, 2017 and it has so far reported the 25.54 percent project. 

The deadline of the project completion is set for mid-April, 2027.

Initially, the project was estimated to cost Rs 213. 09 billion.

President Ram Chandra Paudel and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli held a meeting on Wednesday.

Oli reached Sheetal Niwas this afternoon at the call of President Paudel.

During the meeting, they discussed House deadlock and contemporary political issues.

On the occasion, President Paudel expressed his  concern over the House deadlock with main opposition party leader Oli, a source at the President’s Office said.

In the meeting, Oli said that the UML had demanded formation of a high-level probe committee or commission in the Parliament, but the government was not ready to form the same.

Oli said that the regular proceedings of the Parliament were obstructed due to the government’s reluctance to form the high-level probe committee.

In response, the President urged Oli to move ahead by taking all the parties representing in the Parliament into confidence.

Earlier on Friday, Parliament Speaker Devraj Ghimire and National Assembly Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina met President Paudel and urged him to take initiatives to open the House.

They had urged the President to hold talks with all the political parties as a guardian.

Three senior leaders of the ruling coalition held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss resolving the House obstruction.

The main opposition CPN-UML has been obstructing the Parliament proceedings for a long time demanding formation of a high-level probe committee to investigate the recent gold smuggling case.

Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal and Deputy Prime Minister duo Purna Bahadur Khadka and Narayan Kaji Shrestha among others were present in the meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar this morning.

The Prime Minister’s press coordinator Surya Kiran Sharma said that the meeting has decided to intensify the process of talks with the main opposition party and the parties representing in the Parliament to resolve the House deadlock.

Earlier, Prime Minister Dahal, Congress President Deuba and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli had held a meeting.

The meeting, however, could not reach an agreement to open the House.

The UML has been obstructing the proceedings of both the House of federal Parliament since June 26 demanding formation of a high-level probe committee to investigate the gold smuggling case.

The Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) on July 18 had seized around one quintal gold that had passed undetected through the customs of the Tribhuvan International Airport.  The yellow metal was concealed in motorcycle brake shoes and electric shavers.

But the weight of the gold after removing the brake shoes came out to be 60 kg.