Consultation Meeting on Current Development Issues with NPC Hotel Kutumba

About the program

On 7th of February 2023, a meeting was organised to discuss the current development issues with NPC. The meeting was held in Hotel Kutumba, Bakhundole, Lalitpur.. There were 12 participants in the consultation meeting.

Dr. Kushendra Bdr Mahat

In any institution there should be a briefing of the policy which is lacking in the contribution area. According to the NPC, there is the expectation of contribution. There should be an approach in the policy and I see lacking in those areas as well. How do we manage the system and contribution? The work was stopped due to COVID19 for two years or more. There are several things that we discussed in other meetings as well. Furthermore, we should take an idea about the sectors for the further contributions in an individual way or in a group.

Prof. Dr. Sangeeta Shahi

We support the national planning commission. The declaration paper was also prepared. We should plan further in our expertise and work on it. Similarly, we have to make our own space and show the impactful work. We have to work in an effective way as well. We should be able to contribute.

Mr. Netra Prasad Timalsina

Development projects should be done. There should be resources and budgets for the development role. And the result should be seen. Fundamental role should be developed as an entity. NPC has been founded for 13 years. The overall national plan should be on board. The planning documents should be planned properly. There are many development issues in our country Nepal and the Nepal planning issues should be taken seriously. I seriously think there should be a national planning act and we should think about it in a very significant way. The stand should be taken and the issues should be talked about in different sector areas. The sectors for the development back up are forest and environment, drinking water and cleanliness, education and health, children and old age people, education, science and the other sector is production as well. If this planning is taken in an important way there will be a huge scale of work. Now, we have to plan in a very impactful way. There should be the planning of the sector. Health sector is also very vital because of the post COVID situations. Systematic change should be done and it should be completed systematically. Additionally, the young generation should be involved. The entities should be formed from the departments. We should work together and plan the discussions.

Prof. Dr. Pushparaj Kandel

Thank you for organising this meeting. Let’s make this meeting an interaction between each other. The important role of NPC is to plan. We should always keep an eye on policy and also know about our sector’s policy. The work of PRI would not affect the NPC. We should keep a good relation with other organisations as well. At some point, the political level has affected NPC too. There is a problem of protocol and the protocol should be given importance. There is a shortage of workers in this field. There is a slogan called “ Samridha Nepal, Sukhi Nepali” . We should stick up to the slogan. We should take the ownership of “Samridha Nepal and Sukhi Nepali”. We should develop our country. While making the 16th Plan we should be careful. We have a year to make the budget so we also should focus on this plan. There are some sectors where we should be very careful. We should motivate as well as pressure the workers. I would like to thank you for organising this meeting. This can be possible if we all are in it. Talking about NPC, we have organised interaction programs and meetings. We should be able to work on it by keeping ourselves in a low profile.

Mr. Min Bahadur Shahi

Vice chairman has said important points. Talking about the planning, it is related to the protocol. The thing should be cleared on a political level as well which is very important. We should maintain the relationship with civil society and there should be participation. All are equal and this message should be sent to everyone. Policy formation and contribution should be done. In some agencies, members are not allowed to communicate with another agency as they have to take permission. There should not be politics and nepotism to inbuilt the policy. There should be leadership in civil society. This is all I have to say according to my point of view.

Ms. Usha Jha

I look up to education and health and I learned a lot in that field. I was very comfortable in that field and the relationship was also good with the colleagues. I got to meet ministers and had to update them about the issues going on related to health and education. There was a process of comfort and discomfort but overall it was good. The thing that bothered me was there were not tangible results in terms of actions that is why we need to focus on policy review. There are some things that are pending. In this case, volunteering may help. There are tons of budgets but still we haven’t been able to fulfil the needs of our country. So there should be communication and contribution. Similarly, there has also been the misuse of resources. I will update about education as education is the backbone of the country. And the status of education should be upgraded, we should not degrade it, instead we should try to upgrade it in every possible way. The educational programs should be highlighted. Talking about health, insurance will do a lot. We have to organise this in a proper way and social protection programs should be done as well. We should talk about the structure of social development. We should bring the program under the same umbrella. There should be an ownership of the planning commission. Let’s work on it and I am totally open. I will help as much as I can.

Mr. Arjun Bhattarai

There should be a serious discussion. The NPC was dismissed before this. There was zero interaction. Therefore, for further planning there should be a discussion and interaction.

Mr. Bidur Subedi

This discussion was very fruitful. I just want to say that we did a lot of interaction and inbetween many internal works were also settled. I hope that NPC will keep supporting us.

Participants

• Dr. Pushparaj Kandel
• Dr. Kushendra Bdr Mahat
• Prof. Dr. Sangeeta Singh
• Usha Jha
• Arjun Bhattarai
• Min Bahadur Shahi
• Bidur Subedi
• Pibanta Neupane
• Gobinda Shahi
• Sushil Gyewali
• Rajesh Sharma
• Nirajan Shahi