Kathmandu: Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Prithvi Subba Gurung, has directed the employees to increase the capital expenditure of the ministry in the current fiscal year 2024/25.
Minister Gurung instructed to spend more than 90 percent of the capital budget in all agencies and departments under the ministry.
Speaking at a review meeting on the work progress of the last fiscal year 2023/24 organised at the ministry on Monday, Minister Gurung expressed the view that all the bodies concerned should pay attention to spending the capital expenditure as failure to spend the budget has become a challenge.
The Communications Minister emphasized the need to make laws, acts and policies, timely, practical and implementation-oriented, adding the existing acts, laws and policies are obstacles to the development.
He mentioned that obstacles have surfaced in the work progress of the ministry due to the recruitment of more employees than necessary.
Sharing that employees fulfilling their as
signed duties honestly and responsibly should be encouraged and those not fulfilling the duties should be punished, Minister Gurung mentioned that unnecessary organisations and agencies should be cut down.
Talking to representatives of the bodies and departments under the ministry after listening to the work progress, the Communications Minister asked them to pay attention to increasing revenue.
He stressed that the Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS), Nepal Television, Radio Nepal and Gorkhapatra Corporation as well as other organisations should increase their income sources by protecting and mobilizing their movable and immovable assets.
‘Let’s pay attention to increasing revenue by utilizing movable assets at maximum’, he underlined.
Minister Gurung said that the Ministry should prioritize the plan of making ‘Digital Nepal’, Nepal’s satellite and printing press.
“The development of the present time is of information technology. We have to move ahead making Hero Mission to these areas,” Minister Gurung
added.
Likewise, National Planning Commission Member Dr Prakash Kumar Shrestha said such meetings should focus on exploring solutions instead of being trapped in problems.
Shrestha also pledged to cooperate with the Ministry to work for technology development and expansion and job creation.
On the occasion, reviews of the ministry’s performance in the technology sector were done along with the policy and legal reforms.
The inception of the news service in the Awadhi language by RSS, RSS video service through FPT and cooperation between RSS and Qatar News Agency (QNA) were stated as achievements in the mass media sector.
Likewise, Ministry’s Secretary Radhika Aryal said she has expected support from all the employees to meet the government target of making a digital decade.
Source: National News Agency Nepal