By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Jan. 2: Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota Thursday came heavily down on social media users and some political party leaders for creating a rumor and confusion among the people regarding the provisions in the Information Technology Bill.
The Development and Technology Committee of the House of Representatives on December 29 had passed the bill.
Some noted political party leaders have been creating unnecessary confusion regarding the bill’s provisions by hiding the facts and truth mentioned in the bill, Minister Baskota said while speaking at a weekly press conference organised to make the cabinet decisions public.
“We are ready to undergo wide discussion on the facts in the Bill’s provisions, but we do request all quarters not to hide the truth just by making rhetorics and posting video messages in their respective social media,” Minister Baskota said.
Minister Baskota, clarifying the confusion that surfaced among the public and social media users, said that the people did not need to personally register the social media account for using it, but it is the company or respective social media company that need to compulsorily register in Nepal, before their operation in Nepal.
During the draft of the bill, there were the presence of lawmakers from the main opposition party and the sub-committee and committee represented by these lawmakers had included some eight recommendations forwarded by them before its endorsement, Minister Baskota said.
In Nepal, around nine million people are using Facebook, 4 million people use Twitter and some operate WeChat and Instagram, according to the government.
“We request all the political party leaders to make their comments only after going through the newly enlisted legal provisions drafted in the bill before unnecessarily exaggerating the information has created confusion among the people,” Minister Baskota said.
“Some political party leaders and lawmakers have been making remarks over the Information Technology Bill with their pre-occupied mindset,” Minister Baskota said.
The bill was endorsed by the Committee after going through 36 amendments in the respective committee of the HoR, Minister Baskota said.
“The government wants that all these social media should be operated without obstruction but we are only trying to control social media’s haphazard use under the norms of open society,” he said.
But, by hyping the negativity against the government’s effort, some political party leaders have continuously been hiding that one single word mentioned in the bill and that is ‘continuous’ or ‘repeated’ which is related to the intention of the users, Minister Baskota said.
The government has not made any such provision to bar the people from posting healthier and acceptable comments and status in the social media, he said.
Minister Baskota also suggested the users and party leaders to go through the provision as mentioned in the Article 49 sub-section 1 (Ga) while broadcasting radio message.
“We cannot fight against any person’s and institution pre-occupied intention and rumor by concealing the truth as it cannot last for long,” Minister Baskota said.
The provision of imposing a fine up to Rs. 1.5 million and five years jail sentence is not for those social media users but only for those who repeatedly misuse it and attack on the privacy of the individuals, he said.
Article 88 Sub-section 1 has imposed a ban on writing, posting and broadcasting any information that would go against the national security, sovereignty and create hatred among the public and citizens among different castes, religions, and those trying to create regional, state and federal disturbance in the country.
The minister said that the practice of posting, writing and broadcasting everything they wish is the trend towards establishing social criminalisation in the society.
In another context, Minister Baskota said that the government was trying to manage a new system so that the sugarcane farmers could receive the government-provided subsidy directly in their bank account. At present, the government has been providing the subsidy to sugarcane farmers through the sugarcane entrepreneurs. It has become a chronic problems for the sugarcane farmers who have been facing this every year.
The procedure of providing subsidy directly to the farmers is not adequate and that is why they were facing this problem, he said. A system should immediately be developed so that the sugarcane farmers can get their share of the government provided subsidy directly in their bank accounts, he said.
Meanwhile, the cabinet meeting held on December 30 took various 14 decisions. The cabinet meeting decided to deport four Egyptian nationals from Nepal who had been staying illegally in Nepal for long time. The government, before deporting them, decided to waive off fine of USD 4,640 and additional fine of Rs. 200,000.
The cabinet meeting also decided to provide compensation amount of Rs. 1.2 million collectively to 13 people including family members of Jagat Bahadur Karki as recommended by the National Human Rights Commission.
The government has also given permission for pooling the land area up to 31 metres of the Ring Road during the Ring Road expansion project beginning from Kalanki-Maharajgunj-Dhobikhola road section. The second phase of the Ring Road expansion project is moving on the financial assistance of Chinese government.
The government has appointed Premnath Adhikari of Myanglung Municipality-10 of Tehrathum as chairman of Cultural Corporation and Ashok Kumar Rai of Sidingwa Rural Municipality-6 of Taplejung district as General Manager of the Corporation for maximum tenure of four years.
The Cabinet meeting also appointed Naresh Raj Aryal of Tokha Municipality-4 as banking member of Debt Recovery Tribunal for five years term.
The government also endorsed Consumer Protection Regulation-2019 and one health strategy-2019.