KATHMANDU, August 16: The Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN) has got a new working committee under the chairmanship of Nilhari Bastola. TAAN is the umbrella organization of mountaineering tourism entrepreneurs.
Bastola became the new president of TAAN garnering 616 votes at the 44th Annual General Meeting and election of the TAAN held last night. His nearest rival Ram Prasad Sapkota collected 264 votes. The entire panel led by Bastola won the election.
According to the election committee, Krishna Prasad Dahal has been elected the senior vice president and Pradip Pandit the first vice president, Dhan Bahadur Gurung the second vice president, Binod Sapkota (Babu) the general secretary, Homnath Bhattarai the secretary, Purushottam Timilsina the treasurer, and Chhing Dorji Sherpa the co-treasurer.
Nilhari Bastola filing candidacy for TAAN president
Sajana Tripathi is the woman member and other members are Ram Prasad Banjara, Raju Aryal, Ganesh Bahadur Adhikari, Kumar Lama, Nabinath Devkota, Subash Bhandari, Lakpa Dorje Sherpa and Krishna Bahadur Pariyar, the election committee added.
The newly-elected President Bastola made a commitment that TAAN would work in collaboration with various stakeholders to develop it as a common institution of all mountaineering tourism entrepreneurs. He also vowed to implement the 20-point election manifesto he had made public before the election.
The government and private sector should cooperate and coordinate with each other to revive the tourism sector, which suffered the worst from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to him.
As many as 1,850 tourism entrepreneurs are affiliated to TAAN which has a 25-member working committee where 17 are directly elected.
