Kathmandu, March 2

The government today declared 22 people who had lost their lives fighting against the dictatorial system martyrs.

A meeting of the Cabinet took a decision to this effect.

According to Minister of Information and Communications, Sherdhan Rai, the 22 people who were declared martyrs today are: Hari Nepal (Taplejung); Chandra Bahadur Puri (Sankhuwasabha); Bhim Dutta Pant (Dadeldhura); Durganand Jha (Dhanusha); Shamsher Bahadur Khatri (Gulmi); Bhim Narayan Shrestha (Dhankuta); Ratna Kumar Bantawa (Ilam); Rishi Devkota(Sindhuli); Ramnath Dahal; Netra Ghimire, Kiran Rajbanshi, Krishna Kuinkel, Narayan Prasad Shrestha and Chandra Dangi (Jhapa); Captain Yagya Bahadur Thapa, Lilanath Dahal, Thaginath Dahal, Khagendra Raj Dahal and Gokarna Bahadur Karki (Okhaldhunga); and Ram Upadhyaya, Laxman Upadhyay and Suryanath Yadav.

Among these martyrs, Durganand Jha, Shamsher Bahadur Khatri, Bhim Narayan Prasad Shrestha, Captain Yagya Bahadur Thapa, Thaginath Dahal, Khagendra Raj Dahal, Ram Upadhyay and Laxman Upadhyay are supporters of Nepali Congress.

Suryanath Upadhyay was a supporter of the CPN-Fourth Convention.

Ratna Kumar Bantawa, Rishi Devkota, Ramnath Dahal, Netra Ghimire, Biren Rajbanshi, Krishna Kuinkel and Narayan Shrestha were supporters of the CPN-ML now CPN-UML.

Both NC and the UML claimed that Hari Nepal and Bhim Dutta Panta, Chandra Bahadur Puri and Chandra Dangi were their supporters.

Today’s meeting of the Cabinet also formed a five member committee to identify people who were martyred in Timburbote, Chhintang and Piskar incidents.

Other members of the committee are Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Cooperatives Chitra Bahadur KC, Minister of Land Reforms Ram Kumar Subba and Minister of Irrigation Umesh Yadav.

The government also appointed Consuls General for Hong Kong, Kolkata, and Lhasa.

According to Rai, Joint Secretary of Ministry of General Administration Kamal Prasad Bhattarai, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Information and Communications Ek Narayan Aryal and Joint Secretary of Ministry of Tourism Govinda Karki were appointed Consuls General for Hong Kong, Kolkata and Lhasa respectively.

Similarly the Cabinet also endorsed the Procedures for Providing Loans to Earthquake Affected People for Reconstruction and reconstruction regulations, 2016.

Meanwhile after the government appointed consuls general, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority today wrote letters to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs seeking to know whether or not the government had appointed Consuls General for Hong Kong, Kolkata and Lhasa and if so, on what grounds.

Spokesperson for the anti-graft body Krishnahari Pushkar said the appointment of such persons should be done to serve the best interest of the public and therefore the CIAA wanted to know details of the criteria for the appointment of Consuls Generals if the government had made the appointment as reported today.