KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 18

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed a chargesheet against seven persons, including a former chairperson of the rural municipality, at the Special Court for their involvement in revenue leakage worth millions of rupees in collusion with contractors in relation to extraction of river products.

Those indicted by the anti-graft body are former chairperson of Temal Rural Municipality (Kavre) Salam Singh Lama, Chief Administrative Officer Sharmila Lamichhane, operator of A & DB Construction Pvt Ltd Anish Bal and its authorised representative Bik Kumar Dong, operator of Dawakot Construction Pvt Ltd Ram Chandra Pradhananga, operator of Salinadi Construction and Suppliers Bed Narayan Dangal, and authorised representative of Salinadi Construction & Suppliers and Duwakot Construction Pvt Ltd Satyaman Lama.

According to the CIAA, rural municipality chairperson Lama and CAO Lamichhane entered into an agreement with the contractor companies by fixing contract price at less than the minimum amount stated in the 'Standard on Extraction, Sale and Management of Stones, Pebbles and Sand'. It had resulted in revenue loss of around Rs 25.7 million to the government.

The standard aims to ensure easy supply of river and minebased products for infrastructure development activities and to discourage excessive and indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources.

Contrary to the legal provision, the rural municipality chairperson, CAO and contractors had over-exploited the river products to serve their private interest through corruption.

As per the CIAA, the Initial Environment Examination report of the contract states that river products may be extracted using heavy equipment such as excavator under the oversight of the technical committee formed by the local level. But they were found to have used heavy equipment arbitrarily without seeking the presence of the technical committee.

They had also extracted and collected river products without using labour-based technology to provide employment opportunities to locals. In addition, the indiscriminate extraction of river products had affected the natural environment. A nine-member district monitoring committee led by the chief of District Coordination Committee had also found the contractors flouting legal provisions.

In the chargesheet filed at the court, the CIAA has sought the recovery of Rs 25.7 million in revenue leakage from rural municipality Chairperson Lama and CAO Lamichhane each, in addition to a fine equivalent thereto.

Similarly, the anti-graft body has demanded the recovery of Rs 5.2 million from Bal and Dong, Rs 12.9 million from Pradhananga, Rs 7.5 million from Dangal and Rs 20 million from authorised representative of Salinadi Construction & Suppliers Pvt Ltd and Duwakot Construction Pvt Ltd Lama, along with a fine equivalent to the amount in question.

A version of this article appears in the print on December 19, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.