Kathmandu. The House of Representatives, Industry and Commerce and Labour and Consumer Welfare Committee has directed the government to commercialize the state-owned Nepal Pharmaceutical Limited and operate it at full capacity and develop it as the main unit of basic drug production in the state.

The meeting of the committee directed the Ministry of Finance to meet the financial requirements related to production enhancement and business expansion of the company. The meeting directed the Ministries of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Health and Population and Finance to make necessary policy arrangements to purchase medicines from all three levels of government agencies.

The committee has called for the management of competent and skilled human resources and production of medicines as per the standards of the World Health Organization for strengthening the institutional capacity of The Pharmaceutical Limited. The meeting directed the Ministry of Health and Limited to formulate a long-term strategic plan to expand service delivery in line with federalism and implement it as soon as possible.

The meeting has urged the Ministry of Health to make proper arrangements to purchase the medicines produced from The Aushadhi Limited at the government level among the basic essential medicines prescribed by the government.

The committee has directed the Tribhuvan University administration to construct quality drinking water, food and gender-sensitive physical infrastructure by implementing the basic standards of health and sanitation in drinking water and food items in the hostel. The meeting has cautioned to ensure the hearing of complaints at the earliest and to arrange an internal inspection mechanism.

In today’s meeting, discussions were held on the report received from the on-site monitoring of The Pharmaceutical Limited and tu hostel at Kitipur. According to the report, the internal environment of the production room was not satisfactory as water bottles were cleaned in the corridor of the drug production room during the monitoring and the old bottle filling machines were stuck.

Similarly, the condition and management aspect of tu hostel at Kirtipur is very weak, there is no proper environment for students to live and study, clean drinking water and food mess is pathetic. A parliamentary team comprising senior food research officer at the Department of Food and Technology and Quality Control had inspected the aushadhi limited and hostel on site.

In the meeting, Principal of University Campus Kirtipur, Prof Dr Akkal Dev Mishra, clarified that various reforms have been initiated to make the hostel systematic. Lawmakers Rekha Yadav, Suryaman Tamang (Dong), Sita Mijar, Ranendra Barali, Sapana Rajbhandari, Rama Koirala, Amrita Devi Agrahari, Kantika Sejuwal, Ram Shankar Yadav and Mangal Prasad Gupta, among others, pointed out the need to improve the quality of the products of The Pharmaceutical Limited and to expand the commercial capacity and improve the quality of kitchen and food items of the hostel immediately.