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Kathmandu Friday August 03, 2001 Shrawan 19, 2058.
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Rejoinder
This refers to letter entitled "Please, report on
Gupta" published on August 1, 2001, TKP. Umesh Tuladhar’s letter has drawn our
attention and wish to clarify his concern on licencing of FM radio stations in Pokhara
during Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta’s last tenure as Minister for Information and
Communications. It is important to understand the existing act and regulation underlying
licensing procedures of FM Radio stations in Nepal before labelling such charges. The
procedure is an open economic, business and technical proposal. If the proposal is found
to be satisfactory upon detailed evaluation and recommended for licensing, then only such
proposals are accepted. Following this process FM radio station licenses were issued to
other applicants such as Kantipur FM Pvt Ltd including the FM radio stations in Pokhara.
When Gupta took up as Minister last time, there were
only 12 FM radio stations operating in different parts of the country. Now there are
altogether 25 FM radio stations. Therefore, it seems simple to understand that the
government has played a very significant proactive/promotive role to let the private
sector establish FM radio stations throughout the country. Tuladhar’s concern over
taking money for FM radio station licensing at Pokhara can be explained better by the FM
radio station operators themselves, or by newsreporters.
Ministry of Information and Communications
Singhadurbar, Kathmandu |
