By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Feb. 19: The government has given permission to the Ministry of Health and Population and Department of Public Health under the Ministry to purchase 2 million doses of Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held on February 16 took the decision to this effect, informed Minister for Communication and Information Technology Parbat Gurung at a press conference organised to make the Cabinet decisions public on Thursday.
The Covishield vaccine would be purchased directly without undergoing public procurement processes by releasing the legal hurdles of the Public Procurement Act, which doesn’t allow the government to directly purchase goods.
For this, the government has used the rights as mentioned in the Section 74 ‘b’ of the Public Procurement Act 2006, according to Minister Gurung.
“The Cabinet meeting has decided to open the legal hurdles for directly purchasing the Covishield vaccine for one time,” Minister Gurung said. “The government has to choose the path as to ensure timely supply of the required vaccine in the country.”
The Indian government had given 1 million doses of vaccine as a grant on January 21, 2021.
Release of inmates
Also, the Cabinet meeting held on February 16 decided to give amnesty to some jailbirds on the occasion of Democracy Day being marked on February 19. The number of the inmates to be freed from the jails has not been confirmed yet as the President is yet to have her certification, said Minister Gurung.
Appointment, promotion
The government has appointed Secretary Lal Bahadur Kunwar as chief registrar of the Supreme Court under legal service. Also, the government has promoted Nirmala Poudel Bhattarai as registrar of the Administrative Court of Nepal. The government has also approved the resignation tendered by Brigadier General (Technical) Dr. Sushil Bahadur Rawal of Nepali Army and promoted Lieutenant Colonel and pilot of Nepali Army Pratap Bahadur Bohara as Colonel.
Also, the government appointed chairman and some members in Yogmaya Ayurveda University. As per the decision, Prof. Anup Kumar Shrestha has been appointed as chairman and Dr. Devkala Bhandari, Dr. Raj Kishwore Sah, Ram Kumar Ghimire and Ram Chandra Neupane as members.
Lumbini Province given forested land
The government has also given permission to Lubmini Province government to use nine Bigahas of land of the national forest in Shivaraj Municipality-5 of Kapilvastu district for constructing a 50-bed tropical and infectious disease hospital. The area lies along Mahendra Highway.