Structural change of governance in offing: PM Prachanda

 Kathmandu, Dec. 6

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has said that the government is set to make reforms in the overall governance system of the country.

Addressing an interaction on 'Nepal's economy and reforms in governance' organised in Lalitpur on Wednesday, the Prime Minister stated that a governance reforms commission would be formed soon to review the weaknesses in the system before moving ahead to make structural changes.

Stating that since the government is in the process of reviewing the 15^th periodic plan, preparing the 16^th plan, and formulating policies and programmes and budget for the next Fiscal Year 2024/25, PM Prachanda said, "This is the time to begin implementing short-term and long-term reform initiatives. We need to concretise the macroeconomic indicators so that common people feel the reforms are made."

He directed the bureaucrats to focus on providing prompt services to the people within the existing laws. He also said that his directives given to the secretaries after assuming the post a year ago have been poorly executed.

"People should feel that they have been promptly provided the public service they are seeking otherwise their confidence in the governance and bureaucracy would be shaken," said PM Prachanda.

Philosophy and ideology do not mean anything to the people if they do not see improvement in the service, he maintained, and said that people express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the government based on services and development,

According to him, a new approach in public service delivery, development work and policy-making would be introduced.

Meanwhile, PM Prachanda said that economic reform has not been happening so, in terms of keeping the national economy healthy, the country has failed somewhere.

"We need to know where we failed while making structural reforms. Pragmatic solutions to address the current maladies in the economy," he said.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 7 December 2023. 

PM Deuba plants saplings along/by/on Bishnumati Link Road

Kathmandu, Sept. 1

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has planted saplings at Bishnumati Link Road in Tahachal area of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City-13 on the occasion of Civil Service Day 2021 on Wednesday.

The day that falls on September 7 is being celebrated for a week with a slogan of 'Professional, creative administration: Development, prosperity and good governance'.

Prime Minister Deuba launched the Day with the tree plantation.

Chief Secretary of the government, Shankar Das Bairagi, said that since the bureaucracy is the permanent government, the day will be celebrated with various creative programmes for a week till next Wednesday.

Minister for Home Affairs Bal Krishna Khand, Chief of Army Staff Prabhu Ram Sharma, Inspector General of Police Shailesh Thapa Kshetri, Inspector General of Armed Police Force Shailendra Khanal and secretaries of various ministries also planted trees on the occasion.

About 130 plants of various species of flowers and trees were planted along the corridor.

Likewise, the three levels of the government will plant about 10 million trees in a year from now.

According to Bairagi, as per the forest preservation campaign, one civil servant will plant 15-20 trees.

There are about 70,000 civil servants in the country. The day is being celebrated since 2062 BS.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 2 September 2021. 

Finance Ministry welcomes Pushkar and Aryal

Kathmandu, Aug 29

The Ministry of Finance has welcomed newly appointed Revenue Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar Karna and Financial Comptroller General Suman Raj Aryal on Sunday.

The post of revenue secretary was vacant after incumbent Ram Sharan Pudasaini retired while FCG Madhu Kumar Marasini was transferred to the Ministry as the Finance Secretary.

Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma welcomed the new secretaries and directed them to perform their special responsibilities through an integrated work system.

He expressed confidence that the high-level government officials would play their role for productive results in resource generation, its mobilisation and monitoring. He took the opportunity to direct the concerned officials to submit the plans he demanded on revenue increment, customs, public corporations, monitoring and research at the earliest.

Finance Secretary Marasini stressed the need for bringing positive results in the economic indicators. According to him, enhancing revenue, capital budget expenses and maintaining fiscal discipline are the areas that must have positive results.

Newly appointed Secretary Pushkar said that although the bureaucracy has many experienced administrators, only a few of them are ‘performers’ and expressed his commitment that he would work in a way that other government offices will also take ownership of his performance.

He stressed on taxpayer-friendly service and maintained that he would work on the basis of ‘home grown trend’.

Likewise, FCG Aryal expressed commitment to strengthen the system at the Office of the Financial Comptroller General with the policy reform, professional capacity and adoption of information technology.

He also stressed on the importance of fiscal discipline. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 30 August 2021. 

Govt slow in identifying quake victims

Kathmandu, Mar. 18: The government has been slow in identifying the quake victims and distributing the house reconstruction grant.

It’s been almost two years since the first jolt hit the country, and the government has so far distributed the house reconstruction grant to 533,361 families who lost their houses in the devastating earthquake of 2015.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD), 85 per cent of the 626,695 households in the 14 severely hit districts, including the Kathmandu Valley, eligible for the housing grant have received the first installment of the grant, that is, Rs. 50,000.

These households will receive a grant of Rs. 300,000 and concessional loans as well.

The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has said that those households affected by the quake will receive the second installment of Rs. 150,000 only after completing their house construction up to the plinth level, and money will be deposited into their bank accounts following the inspection of the house by the engineers.

The tremors killed about 9,000 people and damaged about 900,000 households in 31 districts in the hills and mountains.

But the government has signed the grant agreement with only 554,614 households so far while it is still surveying the quake victims in 17 districts that were moderately hit by the earthquake.

Spokesperson of the NRA Yam Lal Bhoosal said that the survey in those 17 districts would be concluded within a week from now.

The reconstruction body in November last year had announced that every household that had lost a house in the quake would receive the grant money within a couple of months, and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had directed the NRA to distribute the first installment of the grant within 45 days.

As per MoFALD’s statistics, the highest number of beneficiaries comes from Sindhupalchowk.

Approximately 74,912 households in Sindhupalchowk have received the first installment of the grant money.

Likewise, 62,894 in Dhading, 61,575 in Nuwakot, 59,751 in Kavrepalanchowk, 52,675 in Gorkha and 47,079 in Dolakha have received the grant money.

Meanwhile, more than 200,000 families have registered complaints at various government agencies demanding that they be included in the list of beneficiaries.