Kathmandu, May 6

Information and Communications Minister Raj Kishor Yadav Sunday said that the Gorkhapatra daily should contribute to institutionalise the development process in Nepal in a constructive way.

Inaugurating a function organised here to mark the 112th year of the publication of the Gorkhapatra daily and the golden jubilee of the Gorkhapatra Corporation, Minister Yadav said that the Gorkhapatra should improve its quality to contribute to building a New Nepal.

He said that the quality of the Gorkhapatra daily and other publications could be further improved if its staffs become more professional, accountable and responsible for their duty and added that the government was ready to support the corporation for its qualitative improvement.

He also informed that the Ministry was trying to allocate a little budget to the corporation in order to improve the quality of its publications and added that the corporation should play a major role in the process of building New Nepal.

Stating that the Ministry was ready to support the corporation for its restructuring, the newly re-appointed minister urged the corporation management to bring in a new restructuring project.

On the occasion, Minister Yadav distributed gold medals to 21 employees who served in the corporation for 25 years and silver medals to 28 who worked for 20 years.

Acting secretary at the Information and Communications Ministry Laxman Kumar Pokharel said that the ministry was serious about improving the condition of government media houses.

"The minister will support the government media houses to resolve their problems," he said.

He said that the new information policy would also help address the problems faced by the government media houses.

He said that the government should allocate fund to improve the situation of government media houses in its annual budget.

He said that the ministry was trying to make the state-owned media houses professional and economically sustainable and urged the government media houses to work with new concepts and visions.

Gorkhapatra Corporation Executive Chairman Ram Kishore

Singh said that the employees should unite to improve the financial condition of the corporation.

He said that the management was trying to start regional publication of corporation and stressed the need of the technological improvement in its publications.

Gorkhapatra Corporation Acting General Manager Kapil Ghimire said that the corporation was facing big challenges and the

government should support the corporation to improve the situation.

He also asked the government to support the corporation to start the regional publications and replace the old equipment with the new ones.

Editor in Chief of Gorkhapatra Daily Sitaram Agrahari said that positive thinking about the corporation was essential to improve the quality of Gorkhapatra.

He stressed the need of structural change in the corporation.

Deputy General Manager Binod Aryal, Gorkhapatra Corporation Employees Association-2052 chairman Bikram Babu Rai, Gorkhapatra Corporation Employees Association- 2047 chairman Arjun Basnet, Gorkhapatra Corporation National Employees Organization- 2063 chairman Mukunda Chimauria and Gorkhapatra Corporation chapter of the Federation of Nepalis Journalist (FNJ) chairman Tribhuvan Chandra Wagle also expressed their views on the occasion.

On the occasion, Minister Yadav and secretary Pokharel distributed the prize announced by different employees associations of the corporation.