Government committed to protecting Garva Palace in Kailali: Culture Minister Pandey

Kathmandu: Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Badri Prasad Pandey, has said the government is committed to protecting the Kailali-based historic Garva Palace with the promotion of language and cultural diversities of the country.

In his replies to concerns regarding the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation in a National Assembly (NA) session today, the Minister said, “The Garva Palace based in Chure rural municipality-4 in Kailali has been already listed in the list of archeological heritages.”

He was replying to concerns from NA member Madan Kumari Shah (Garima) regarding the government’s policies and programmes for the conservation of Garva Palace and tourism business in Kanchanpur.

The Department of Archeology is working on the preparation of a detailed study report after a field inspection to the site and the budget of Rs 400,000 has been proposed for the document preparation in the upcoming fiscal year 2082/83, he added.

Meantime, in response to concerns by NA member Mohammed Khalid, the Minister expressed the commitments to promoting to the language and culture diversities in the country.

In accordance with Article 6 of the Constitution, all the mother tongues spoken in Nepal are the national languages, he said, adding that the Language Commission formed in line with Article 287 is engaged in the protection, study, research; and promotion of such languages.

According to the National Census 2078 BS (2021), a total of 124 languages have been identified so far and among them 93 languages (around 75 percent) are concerned with indigenous communities.

Minister Pandey also mentioned that the government has been continuously engaged in the preservation, documentation, and promotion of these languages.

He made it clear that government’s policies and programmes accord priorities to the protection of language and culture.