Kathmandu, April 26

The government today scrapped the Nepali citizenship of three Indian nationals, including Mahendra Kumar Mishra, Anil Kumar Mishra and Satish Kumar Mishra.

They had acquired the citizenship papers from Rupandehi District Administration Office by providing fake personal details.

Government spokesperson Sherdhan Rai said today’s meeting of the cabinet had decided to scrap those citizenship certificates.

Spokesperson of Home Ministry Yadav Koirala said those receiving citizenship with fake documents could get a maximum jail sentence of five years, but since they were not in Nepal now, the Home Ministry will communicate with the Foreign Ministry for necessary measures to punish them.

Koirala said those issuing the citizenship certificates would also be punished as per the law.

He further said a large number of applications were registered at the DAOs of Tarai districts complaining about people acquiring citizenship with fake documents. “We have received around 500 complaints from Parsa district alone,” Spokesperson Koirala said, adding that the DAOs were investigating documents provided for acquiring citizenship.

He further said most of the complaints were lodged regarding citizenships issued by the mobile teams of the ministry.

Minister for Information and Communications Rai informed that the meeting decided to allow Nepal Rastra Bank to issue 2,000 units of silver coins of Rs 2,000 denomination weighing 25 grams as commemorative coins on the occasion of the 116th anniversary of the Gorkhapatra daily.

Rai said the coins will have the symbolic imprint of the first issue of the Gorkhapatra vernacular.

The meeting decided to appoint Janak Lal Tiwari of Syangja as the executive vice-chair of the poor household support board. The post had remained vacant after Nepali Congress leader Ramchandra Paudel’s son Chintan Paudel resigned around a month ago.

The government also decided to approve in principle preparation of the bill regarding national identity card and approving the organisational structure and posts of temporary employees in the National Youth Council for this fiscal.

Today’s cabinet meeting deputed joint-secretaries Somraj Koirala, Suman Dahal, Narayan Prasad Sapkota, Jitendra Basnet and Shivram Neupane to the National Reconstruction Authority; Hariram Sharma to the Finance Ministry; and Jhalakram Adhikari, Yam Lal Bhusal, Yagya Raj Koirala, Balram Rijal and Ishwar Poudel to the reserve pool.