Hetauda, January 13

Makawanpur’s Manahari has been declared a child-friendly rural municipality.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Ishwor Pokhrel today formally announced that the rural municipality was the first ever child-friendly rural municipality, not only in the district and the province but also in the entire country.

He, however, reminded that the announcement was just a formality, and that the local body concerned had to do the needful to make sure that the child-friendly environment was put into practice.

On the occasion, the minister also hailed federalism for ending the plight of people, living away from the centre, of having to depend on the central government for everything. “Earlier, it was the central government that used to call the shots in each and everything, but this is no longer so. Now, there are provincial and local governments and they can do a lot of things on their own for the people by staying within the constitution,” he reasoned.

Province 3 Chief Minister Dormani Poudel also spoke on the occasion and observed that it was the duty of the citizenry to improve society and the country.

“As for our target, we want to make the entire Bagmati Province child-marriage free by 2021 and child-friendly by 2023,” he said.