KATHMANDU, June 26 :The Development and Technology Committee under the House of Representatives has directed the government to expand the coverage of the internet to all local units, community schools and health institutions at the earliest.

A meeting of the parliamentary committee held on Friday directed the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to ensure the availability of high-speed internet at all local units, ward offices, public health offices and educational institutions. 

The parliamentary committee decided to send the directive to this effect to the government after holding consultations with the concerned government authorities including the line ministry, Nepal Telecommunications Authority, Department of Information Technology and National Center for Information Technology about cybercrime and cyber security. 

Talking to media persons after the meeting, chairperson of the parliamentary committee, Kalyani Kumari Khadka said the committee has directed the Government of Nepal and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to effectively work toward ensuring availability of high-speed internet services to the local units, ward offices, health institutions and community schools across the country.

The committee also directed the government to make necessary arrangements to allow the users to download and use the apps and social media sites in Nepal only after verifying their appropriateness regarding privacy security and utility by the national regulatory body concerned.

In a bid to check the leakage of government documents and information due to technical misuse, the committee directed the government to disseminate information only through official channels such as government websites.

The directives also include making necessary arrangements to formulate and implement the law to make all government officials aware about the use of information technology devices and tools. The committee also directed the government to make it mandatory to audit all government websites and purchase the government domain name only from the government agencies.  

Speaking during the meeting, the lawmakers suggested to the committee to direct the government to speed up the task of expanding internet services to all community schools as announced in the annual policies and programs of the government. While concluding that cybercrimes are on the rise in Nepal due to the high dependency on imported technology, they also advised the ministry concerned to issue domain only from the government bodies.

 
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