Nepal can’t afford multiple forensic labs: Mahabir Pun
He argued that the equipment required for such laboratories is highly expensive and beyond Nepal’s financial and technical capacity.
KATHMANDU: Member of Parliament and founder of the National Innovation Centre Mahabir Pun has said that Nepal cannot afford to establish multiple forensic laboratories across provinces due to their extremely high costs.
Speaking at a meeting of the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee under the House of Representatives on Thursday, Pun responded to lawmakers who had suggested setting up forensic labs in every province.
He argued that the equipment required for such laboratories is highly expensive and beyond Nepal’s financial and technical capacity.
According to him, even maintaining ISO certification standards makes it difficult for the country to operate multiple advanced labs, limiting feasibility to only a few facilities nationwide.
Pun, a former education minister, further stated that some forensic and diagnostic tests would still need to be sent abroad due to technical limitations.
He cited Nepal’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, when samples were sent to countries including Hong Kong for testing, saying such foreign collaboration would remain necessary.
He emphasized that rather than spreading resources too thin by building many labs, Nepal should focus on a limited number of well-equipped facilities and rely on international testing support where required.
