POKHARA: Pokhara regional office of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has started to receive complaints in huge numbers. Shankar Bahadur Thapa, Chief of CIAA regional office, said that of the 1,700 complaints received by the office after its establishment, more than 875 have been cleared so far. According to him, of the complaints, education related cases have topped the list, with as many as 727 complaints. Of them, 386 complaints have been cleared so far, whereas 341 are yet to be cleared, said Under secretary Narendra Bhattarai. Ghost parents in the school management committees, fake academic certificates, irregularities in building construction and teachers’ appointment, and lack of transparency are some of the complaints that the regional office of the anti-corruption body has received, he said. Similarly, 337 complaints related to local development and federal affairs, 127 related to land reforms, 132 related to forest, 121 related to health and sanitation and around 304 complaints related to other sectors have been received by the office so far. The Pokhara regional office has filed 19 cases at the Special Court after conducting a detailed study of the complaints. Seven cases have been looked after by the CIAA’s central office in Kathmandu. Seventy other cases are under investigation of the regional office. Deputy Superintendent of Police Shyam Rai of the regional office said that investigation into the complaints had been delayed due to lack of necessary information. “I received the complaints of irregularities during my two-month visit of various Pokhara-based offices. But we need concrete evidence; complaints alone are not enough for investigation and prosecution,” he said. Regional office Chief Thapa said that they had initiated investigation into the irregularity complaints of different Village Development Committees of Syangja, Tanahun and Kaski while distributing social security allowance. “We found that a Village Development Committee secretary had misappropriated the allowance meant for two persons in Syangja, but he later returned the amount,” he said. “We have been conducting interactions among the chiefs of offices, accounts chiefs, engineers of 13 districts regarding how we can curb corruption in the region,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police Shyam Rai.