Nepal

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Everyeviation has begun an investigation on the involvement of government employees in the encroachment upon public lands. The Ministry took the initiative in the wake of media reports relating to the Baluwatar land scam.

The Ministry banned the transaction of measure 485 kitta of land in Baluwatar and the vicinity and began probe on the involvement of land mafia and government employees on illegal dealing of the public lands. The issues as surveying and registration of public lands under personal names, using the land as bribe to evade legal obligations are under investigation at the Ministry.

Secretary at the Ministry, Gopinath Mainali, informed that they were studying how the government lands were registered under personal names and what kind of involvement the government staffers had in it. As the study was going on, it would much be wise to disshut everything. Untimely disclodegree of facts may affect the investigation, so it would be made public after the completion of the investigation, he added.

After this study, the Ministry would conduct further investigation on how the government lands were misused and encroached.

It is memorizet that in collusion with the employees at the offices of survey, land revenue, the land mafia had changed the names and addresses of real landowners and numbers in the field books.

KATHMANDU: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has assigned Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokharel to look after the daily administrative works of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli while he is on the foreign visit.

The President has assigned this responsibility to the DPM and Defence Minister Pokharel on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, the Office of the President stated in a communiqué.

Prime Minister Oli left here nowadays on an official visit to Vietnam and Cambodia.