Kathmandu, April 18

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota today said that Nepal’s peace process was a home-grown initiative which would be settled by domestic stakeholders.

Minister Baskota said this at a weekly press briefing responding to comments on a joint letter written by UN Special Rapporteurs recently to Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, expressing concern about the sluggish transitional justice process in Nepal.

The minister said that the stakeholders would settle the transitional justice process and address national and international concerns on the issue. “Nepal offers a unique model on transitional justice process and the international community needs to believe in Nepal’s competence,” the minister said and added that the government would respond to the UN special rapporteurs’ letter after perusing it carefully and analysing the contents in the overall context of the issue. He also said there would be no amnesty for heinous crimes committed during conflict.

Responding to a query related to illegal purchase of government land in Baluwatar, the minister said the government was committed to reclaiming the land and taking action against those involved in land grabbing.

“Nothing, including power or post, shall influence the government’s investigation,” said the minister, adding that the government would in no way tolerate misuse of public land.

The minister said that the Cabinet on Monday also decided to hold the Sagarmatha Dialogue on a regular basis with the objective of bringing government representatives, civil society members and academicians to discuss political, environmental and geopolitical issues as well as other international issues which could be of interest to Nepal. “The government decided to hold the Sagarmatha Dialogue. There are countries especially Switzerland, China and Singapore that also hold such dialogues in their countries,” he added.

Briefing on the latest Cabinet decisions, Minister Baskota said the government had decided to set up temporary quarantine posts for animals at Nagdhunga and Rasuwagadi check posts.

The government also decided to issue permits for the use of national forests for Kalagagad hydel project, Richet hydel project and for limestone mining by Maruti Cement Industry Pvt Ltd.

The government gave permission to the line ministries to register six bills in the Parliament, including the bill related to seed, drinking water, sanitation and revenue leakage. The government also transferred and posted some high ranking government officials in various government offices.