By TRN Online, Kohalpur, Feb. 19: Minister for Information and Communication, Gokul Baskota, today inaugurated a formal event organised in Kohalpur, marking launch of Gorkhapatra Kohalpur edition.

Gorkhapatra and its sister publication, The Rising Nepal, began publishing Kohalpur edition from Wednesday, targeting Sudur Paschchhim State, Karnali State and State 5, on the occasion of Democracy day.

Inaugurating the program, Minister Baskota said, “Gorkhapatra is not government’s paper, it is nation’s and citizens’ newspaper.”

Baskota said that it was high time for Gorkhapatra to move forward as citizens’ newspaper, competing with private media houses.

Appreciating the changes adopted by Gorkhapatra, he said, “I am proud of the new leadership of the Gorkhapatra Corporation, it has observed numerous changes within a year.”

“The newspaper reflects competencies of the employees and journalists of the corporation every morning,” he said. “Yet, Gorkhapatra needs to adopt a lot more changes for its improvement.”

The press fraternity should have two eyes that sees both, positive and negative aspect of every issue, he said.

“The press should bring the practice of seeing with only one eye to a halt,” Baskota added. “By keeping both the eyes open, press should bring both, positive and negative doings of the state into light.”

Arati Poudel, State 5 Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives, thanked Gorkhapatra for launching Kohalpur edition.

“Kohalpur is the ‘gateway’ for three states and it is the communication hub  for 24 districts,” she said. “It is a matter of happiness that Gorkhapatra has started its publication from the ‘communication-hub’ of states at the far west.”

Krishna Murari Bhandari, Executive Chairman of the Gorkhapatra Corporation, said, “The expectations of the people have added even more responsibilities to the employees and journalists to strive for their better inputs and results.”

“Even though many perceive Gorkhapatra as the endorser of the government, the Gorkhapatra Corporation instead is a quasi-governmental body.”

 Aid of the government, however, cannot be overlooked, he added.

Nandalal Rokaya, member of the federal parliament and L.B. Raut, Mayor of Kohalpur Municipality also extended their contentment on Kohalpur edition of the Gorkhapatra Corporation's dailies.