Parliamentary committee directs government for devising reliable guiding principles, policies

KATHMANDU: The Committee for Monitoring and Evaluating the Implementation of the State’s Directive Principles, Policies and Obligations has advised the government to come up with new policies and programmes in a way that they could determine the direction of the nation and they are worthy of trust from the civic perspectives.

A meeting of the Committee today, it stated that the directive principles, policies and obligations of the State are the guidelines for the operation of the State. The meeting directed the government to present reliable policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year 2082-83 BS ( 2025-26) so that they can be addressed by the budget.

In accordance with the Part 4 of the Constitution, the Directive Principles, Policies and Responsibilities of the State remain as guidelines for the governance of the State and the State shall mobilize or have it mobilized, the required resources and means for the implementation of the principles, policies and responsibilities mentioned in this part, according to Committee President Thakur Prasad Gaire.

The Committee has decided to urge the government to ensure the effective enforcement of these constitutional provisions.

Similarly, the government’s attention has been drawn to the urgency of formulating workforce required operations of the advanced means of tunnel way, cable car, electric railway and to focus on the infrastructure development with the utilisation of home-based workforce and resources by utilising skills and knowledge of foreign migrant returnees.

The government has been advised to incorporate guiding principles and programmes required for achieving the sustainable development goals and addressing the issues of climate change.

The meeting also agreed to advise universities to develop and implement curriculum needed to produce the necessary workforce for operating metal-based industries such as iron, steel and copper, and to present a solid plan for mineral excavation.

It has further advised the government to pursue policies of amending laws, specifically the Forest Act and the National Parks Act, obstructing the proper utilization of forest products and to ensure the scientific uses of forests, replacing imports through the promotion of domestic consumption and promote the forestation efforts simultaneously.

It has been suggested to make the forest produce sector the main area of domestic employment and to adopt a policy to seriously review the current provisions related to tree felling and the impact this arrangement is having on the environment and development.

The Committee also suggested including the development in policies and programmes in a way that is environmental and tourism-friendly. It has urged the government to announce through its present policies programmes itself the policy of becoming self-reliant in one or two agricultural crops.

Committee President Gaire said that the government has also been advised to announce a policy to protect the domestic agricultural produce through high-rate import tax on import of agriculture produce to reduce their growing import and not to keep any cultivable land barren.

He also suggested giving high priority to reservoir-based projects in the operation of hydropower projects, providing more tax and tariff facilities to such projects than provided to the run-off-the-river type projects and giving first priority to public-private partnership in hydropower development.

The meeting also expressed commitment to make education scientific, practical, skill-oriented, employment-and people-oriented by reforming the education policy and to immediately issue the new Education Act. Similarly, the meeting suggested the government to adopt a policy of immediately resolving the problems of the school teachers and announce a policy of creating independent working environment by resolving the overall problems related to the universities.

It has also asked the government to prepare a concrete time-table determining within how many fiscal years will the projects of national pride be completed and to name only the projects of national importance as the ‘national pride project’.

It has been suggested to bring a concrete proposal in this policy and programme to complete the ongoing projects first before adding new projects.

The meeting also suggested the government to adopt a policy to create employment opportunities within the country by establishing industries and reviving the sick industries and to adopt a policy of compulsorily using in government bodies the materials produced from such domestic industries.

The Committee has urged the government to emphasize on the policies and programmes committed to implementing the directive principles and policies of the state under the responsibility of the state.