Poor population to be slashed by one third in three years

Kathmandu, March 29. The government has set a target to slash existing poverty by one third in coming three years.
Around 21 per cent population of the country are below poverty line and the target is to reduce this to 13 percent by 2022.

The Ministry of Land Management, Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation in its poverty reduction policy draft has aimed to lower the poor population to five percent by 2030. The final draft was prepared incorporating inputs and deliberations from all concerned agencies of the government.
The policy would come into effect once it was approved from the Council of Ministers.

Among different arrangements included in the draft are participation of poor and disadvantaged groups in the efforts for poverty reduction, ensuring easy and judicious access of identified poor to basic needs and adoption of a system based on justice and equity for ending discrimination.

Secretary at the Ministry Gopinath Mainali opined that poverty would go down only when people’s purchasing capacity was increased in a way to push economic reforms in the country.