Irregularity in ID card distribution

KAVRE: Coming under pressure from the local Nepali Congress representative, ward Secretary Indramaya Kunwar has distributed as many as 600 fake quake victim identity cards to residents of Sathighar Bhagawatisthan at Wards 16 and 17 of Panchkhal Municipality in Kavre.

It has come to light that ward Secretary Kunwar prepared and distributed 600 fraudulent 600 cards from Sunday till yesterday under pressure from NC representative Jivan Shrestha and other local NC leaders to people pledging allegiance to the NC.

Preliminary survey from the municipality office earlier, however, had reported only 850 quake victim families from the two wards. The number of victims has reached 1,450 after the addition of 600 families of fake quake victims.

Locals claimed that 600 families added to the list of quake victim were aligned to the NC. Following the complaint, the municipality office has started investigation from today.

Executive Officer Devraj Chaulagain said his office would summon ward Secretary Kunwar and seek clarification from her.

Chaulagain assured that all the quake victims’ identity cards would be recalled in support of the local Ward Civil Forum. “We will investigate the anomalies and redistribute identity cards to genuine victims only,” Chaulagain added.

Kavre CDO Sudarsan Prasad Dhakal has directed the municipality to mobilise its team and return the distributed identity cards immediately.

UML ward party mechanism representative Satya Narayan Shrestha asked the municipality to probe and distribute identity cards to genuine victims only. Shrestha has sought action against Kunwar for distributing cards to bogus victims.

Kunwar, however, refused to comment on the incident.