April 19, 2020, Kathmandu
The government of Nepal has decided to use Rs. 16 billion rupees from the Rural Telecom Development Fund for government expenses. As Telecom services in rural areas need a lot of improvement, the fund had to be completely used for the same purpose. Still, rural places in the Himalayan region are deprived of connectivity. They’re separated from the outer world.
So, to make the government aware of this topic, Allen Bailochan Tuladhar, IT Expert, has created a petition to the Finance Minister on Change.org and is looking for the votes in the petition. We asked him about the petition. His sayings are presented below.
“As you know, we have started a campaign to bring awareness to say that it is not correct for the government to take the funds of the Rural Telecom Development Fund (RTDF) for other usages. 16 Arab Rupees (USD Dollars 133 million) has been taken out of this RTDF funds for government expenses.
This amount is the contribution from every telecom user of Nepal contributing 4% into this Fund. Similarly, Telephone Companies, television companies, ISPs are contributing 2% of the amount. This fund should only be allocated for Rural Telecomm Development purposes as purposed in the act to collect these funds. Else Nepal will never develop in rural areas if funds meant for development is used for other purposes than what is allocated for.
With this petition signing campaign, we will collect the support with the signed petition of thousands of Nepalese and hand it over to the Finance Minister, showing him that the common Nepalese believe this is not the correct decision.
We are doing a selfless act to ensure rural people are not deprived of connectivity. The digital divide is filled up so that we need to have equal growth opportunities throughout the country.
This lockdown has shown us how important connectivity is and rural people also deserve to have access to connectivity. This fund is important to ensure that our rural people also get access to good connectivity.“
When we asked Suman Lal Pradhan, Former ISPAN President on the topic, he agreed to the saying of Allen Balilochan Tuladhar. He said the step taken by him is the right step.
You can also sign the petition if you agree with Allen Bailochan Tuladhar. More importantly, you can be part of the change by spreading this article to have more people sign the petition.
To sign the petition, click here.