Nepal

Kathmandu, August 12

Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara today directed the chairs of the five parliamentary committees to form a five-member probe panel to investigate irregularities in vehicles procurement at the Parliament Secretariat.

The committee will have the chairs of five parliamentary committees as members.

This is probably the first time in the parliamentary history of the country that the speaker himself directed the chairpersons of the panels to investigate irregularities at the Parliament Secretariat.

According to Dilli Malla, the press adviser of the speaker, the probe panel will be led by Ram Narayan Bidari, chair of the Delegated Legislation and Government Assurance Committee.

The other four members of the committee are Bharat Kumar Shah, chair of the Public Account Committee, Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, chair of Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee, Krishna Prasad Dahal, chair of Finance Committee and Tara Devi Bhatta, chair of National Sustainable Development and Good Governance Committee. The committee will have 15 days to complete the investigation and prepare a report.

During the last month of fiscal 2018-19, the Parliament Secretariat had bought 11 Scorpio jeeps for chairs of the various committees of the House of Representatives and National Assembly. The vehicles were bought at more than Rs 60,000,000. The chairs started using the vehicles from the fourth week of July. However, all the 11 vehicles started giving trouble right from day one.

The PS told THT that the Ministry of Finance had provided Rs 60 lakh for each Scorpio and the PS paid around Rs 55 to 58 lakh for each vehicle.

&The very day I started using the jeep, it had some issues,& one of the chairs told THT on condition of anonymity.

On Friday, Speaker Mahara and Chair of NA Ganesh Prasad Timilsina had held a meeting with all 16 chairpersons of the parliamentary committees.

During the meeting, almost all the chairs, who were using the new vehicles, said their vehicles were not working properly. &So, the committee chairs requested Speaker Mahara and NA Chair Timilsina to investigate the matter,& one of the chairs told THT.

Another chair told THT that spare parts of the newly-bought vehicles did not appear to be genuine spare parts.

&If you travel in the vehicle, you feel that the spare parts used in the vehicle are of cheap quality,& the chair said, adding, &If you open a window, it makes irritating noise. There is terrible noise even when starting the vehicle and one has to avoid using brakes as they produce a grinding sound.& The vehicles were procured by the Vehicle Division of the PS. Earlier, the division had procured five Scorpios, which are working properly.

A vehicle obtained from Chair of State Affairs and Good Governance Committee Shashi Shrestha has problems with the gear box whereas the vehicle obtained for Bidari has a problem with the chassis.

&Now, you cannot say whose fault it is without investigation.

Two things are possible — either the PS has colluded with the supplier or there are manufacturing defects in the vehicles,& another parliamentary committee chair told THT.

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Kathmandu, August 11

The Office of the Attorney General plans to make protection of victims and witnesses, and continuous hearing in cases involving women and children more effective. Making public its 29-point programmes for this fiscal that began in mid-July, Attorney General Agni Kharel said his office planned to make government attorneys pro-victims.

The office has been running campaigns named ‘Hello Witness& and ‘Continuous Hearing& for over two years now. Kharel said the programmes had helped encourage witnesses to attend the court, while ensuring speedy justice delivery.

&We will make the programmes more effective this year,& he said. The OAG will revise the directives related to protection of victims and witnesses, and activate the Victim Protection Recommendation Committee.

This fiscal, the OAG plans to facilitate adoption of laws related to services of government attorneys, and conduct an organisation and management survey of district attorney offices. The office plans to make 252 hiring in the next three years.

The office also plans to promote seven district attorney offices in each of the seven provinces as model offices. The seven offices are Jhapa of Province-1, Bara of Province-2, Dhading of Province-3, Tanahun of Gandaki Province, Banke of Province-5, Jumla of Karnali Province, and Darchula of Sudurpaschim Province. The office also plans to run training programmes for government attorneys in specialised areas such as cybercrime, organised crime, revenue and public property protection.

The OAG will conduct monitoring of prisons and facilitate improvement of prison conditions. &I must say our jails are overcrowded, and condition there is not good,& said Kharel.

The office will also expand the number of child correction centres.

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Kathmandu, August 12

The high-level commission formed to investigate cases of land-grab and misuse of public land across the country has collected just over 120 complaints, which, the commission members say, is less than what they expected.

Of the total complaints received by the commission, most are related to grabbing or misuse of public land in the three districts of Kathmandu valley. Moreover, most of these cases are related to encroachment of government-owned, public and guthi land. The complaints involve grab and misuse of land areas ranging from a few annas to 200 ropanis.

The commission that began formal operations on June 3 has begun investigation the cases. A meeting of the Cabinet on May 20 had decided to form the all-powerful high-level commission led by Mohan Raman Bhattarai. Bhattarai said a few complaints were related to land-grab cases sub-judice in the courts, while others had already been settled through Supreme Court decisions. &The commission can do nothing about cases already finalised by the Supreme Court,& he said. &We are, however, studying the complaints.&

The commission relies on complaints filed by individuals, information fed by individuals and news reports. It has also issued a circular to all local levels, district administration offices and consumer committees to inform about cases of grabbing and misuse of public land.

The commission members said although complaints and information were coming in gradually every day, the number was less than what they expected considering the scale of media reportage.

Janaki Ballav Adhikari, a member of the commission, said this trend might be because of threat and intimidation involved in cases related to large-scale grab and misuse of public land, costs involved in reaching the commission for filing complaints, and confusion among people, among others.

&On the other hand, people seem to be on a wait and-see mode before the finalisation of the Baluwatar land-grab case,& Adhikari said.

A government-formed committee has concluded that 113 ropani public land in Baluwatar area was transferred in the names individuals illegally. It was revealed that an eight-anna plot within the embezzled land area was registered in the name of son of Bishnu Poudel, general secretary of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP). The matter is presently being investigated by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority and the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police.

Adhikari said since the commission had been mandated to submit its investigation report within six months and complaints were still coming in sporadically, they would soon submit a midterm report to the government of cases finalised so far.

&Even though the number of complaints is less than what we expected, the existing number is enough for the commission to work on given the resources available,& he said.

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KATHMANDU:Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has returned home today from Singapore after his health check-up.

PM Oli had gone to Singapore on August 3 accompanied by his spouse Radhika Shakya and other team members.

The Prime Minister, after returning back, tweeted about his health condition and thanked those who showed concern:

सिंगापुरमा स्वास्थ्य परिक्षण गरी आज फर्किएको छु। मेरो स्वास्थ्य सामान्य रहेको छ। परिक्षणमा संलग्न सबै चिकित्सकप्रति आभार व्यक्त गर्दछु। मेरो स्वास्थ्य स्थितिप्रति चासो राखी चिन्ता व्यक्त गर्ने तथा स्वास्थ्यलाभको कामना गर्नु हुने सवै दिदीबहिनी-दाजुभाईहरूलाई धन्यवाद दिन चाहन्छु।

— K P Sharma Oli (@kpsharmaoli) August 12, 2019

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