Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma has said that early warning about disasters will be aired through Radio Nepal and telecommunications service providers, aimed at reducing the damages from disasters. The telecommunications service providers shall provide information through SMS service.
At a meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) on Thursday, Minister Sharma said the private and community radios, televisions and internet service providers will be mobilized to disseminate early warning messages.
Minister Sharma was speaking at the HoR meeting while responding to the lawmakers' concerns on the topics of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Appropriation Bill, 2081.
On a separate context, Minister Sharma said the Gorkhapatra Corporation, Radio Nepal and Nepal Television would run the programmes and disseminate news by maintaining quality.
She said that the media houses should submit the payroll of their working journalists to the Department of Information to enjoy the services given by the Department and added that the move was aimed at implementing the minimum wages of working journalists.
Furthermore, Minister Sharma said a directive has been issued to promote the decent use of social networking sites and formulation of the bill is in the final stage for its further systematic usage.
On the occasion, Minister Sharma added that the government shall not hold any prejudice against the social sites that are operated following the existing laws and don’t disturb social harmony.
Likewise, she said that the Press Council Nepal was working on record keeping, enlisting and monitoring the Youtube channels.
According to Minister Sharma, the quality of internet service would be upgraded by planting optical fibre in the Mid-Hill Highway and other highways adding that expansion of broadband internet service would be advanced in Gandaki and Lumbini provinces too.
