Kathmandu, June 23: The government has aimed at developing forest as people's common property. The government has adopted the policy of combating deforestation and human encroachment upon forests, prepared plans and managed budget for utilizing forest as a major basis of pursuing economic prosperity.
Minister for Forest and Environment Shakti Bahadur Basnet shared it with the House of Representatives session today. In his response to government queries, he said forest investment, protection, and utilization programs had been prepared with the plan of connecting them to economic development and job creation campaign.
He made it clear that the budget allocated to the forest and environment sector in the upcoming fiscal was not less than of the current fiscal year. It was capable of meeting the people's expectation. He was responding to the concerns from lawmakers raised during the discussions of various headings of the appropriation bill relating to the ministry.
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The government has allocated Rs 11 billion to the sector of forest and environment.
He clarified that the government had a clear policy of marking the upcoming year as the tree plantation year. He added that the government had a concrete policy to establish timber based industries in the country.
Lawmaker Prem Suwal urged the government to pay attention to the increasing pollution and its impact on people.
Similarly, lawmaker Dila Sangraula, Ram Bahadur Bista, Pushpa Bhusal questioned Minister Basnet on various contemporary issues including climate change and its impact in Nepal.
In response to the questions of lawmakers, Minister Basnet said that the government was working out to implement the measures of lessening pollution in Kathmandu Valley.
