Communications sector gains major strides : Gupta

Banke, July 15 (RSS): Minister for Information and Communications Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta initiated the linking up of Nepal Television Kohalpur regional transmission to the National Transmission by switching the feeder on at the control room at the regional programme production and transmission centre, Kohalpur today.

The Kohalpur Transmission Centre, which had initiated its transmission from Saun 1 2053, had been televising programmes produced by itself and the central transmission as well.

Also today, Minister Gupta also inaugurated the Nepal Television regional programme production and transmission centre.

At the inaugural function, he said the communications sector has made the biggest achievement after the restoration of democracy in the country. However, he added, we are not going to rest on our laurels; we want to see our country and the people benefit from the advancement in communications technology the world has seen today.

At a time when the country’s difficult geographical terrain has been a big obstacle to adequate access to information and communication, he said the linking up of regional transmission to the national transmission has proved to be a new milestone in the country’s information and communications sector.

Reiterating that NTV will be linked up to the satellite well before the end of fiscal year 2000/2001 and Radio Nepal will start broadcasting through a second channel from Surkhet, the Minister for Information and Communications said the government is committed to providing at least two telephone lines to every VDC by 2060 B.S.

During the 10 years after democracy Radio Nepal has started broadcasting programmes in 17 different languages and efforts are afoot to continue this process including more languages of the nation in radio programme, he said.

Despite all these efforts, it is regrettable that terrorist activities are being perpetrated in some parts of the country in the name of advocating linguistic and ethnic rights. Those who want to establish their weak political thinking and irrelevant philosophy are using linguistic and cultural suppression as a weapon to serve their vested interest, he observed.

Stating that the government wants to initiate dialogue with those who have deviated from the national mainstream and he urged them to join the national mainstream through dialogue.

Minister Gupta said the recent incident that occurred in Kalikot makes it clear that the people are totally fed up with those involved in terrorist activity. He also stressed the need to expose the sinister design of the terrorists.

MPs Gyanu K.C., Kashi Poudel and Rhidayaram Thani highlighted the importance of the linking up of the NTV regional transmission to the national transmission.

Secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communication Sriram Poudel, NTV Chairman Suresh Kumar Pudasaini, NTV Acting General Manager Durganath Sharma and Banke DDC chairman Omprakash Jung Rana also spoke at the function.

Also, Minister for Information and Communications Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta inaugurated the Radio Nepal resource centre here today.

The centre has been established with the objective of highlighting news oriented programmes and local activities aired through Radio Nepal’s Surkhet Regional Transmission Centre and collect news and other materials necessary for radio programmes.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Gupta pointed out the need to develop the centre into a news collection centre and help strengthen and consolidate the Surkhet Regional Transmission centre.

Office-chief Poshan K.C. also expressed his view on the occasion.

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