Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli has alleged that CPN General Secretary Bishnu Paudel has been dragged in Baluwatar land grab to weaken the party and the government.
"General secretary did not buy the land by abusing his position. He bought the land when there was king's rule and autocracy," PM Oli defended Paudel even as leaders inside the party are criticizing the general secretary after eight annas of the grabbled land in Baluwatar has been transferred to his son Navin.
"General secretary has been attacked to weaken the party and the government," he said addressing the parliamentary party meeting of CPN on Tuesday. "General secretary has been smeared."
He revealed that the government is investigating the scam and studying who have grabbed government land. "The government will take back the land no matter where it has been grabbed. The government will not see who will gain or lose and bring the facts to the public," he assured.
He also stated that the government will also take back the land of Hyatt Hotel and assured that irregularities in procurement of the wide-body planes by the Nepal Airlines Corporation are being investigated.
Paudel has been dragged in the encroachment of government land in Baluwatar with eitgh annas of the grabbed land transferred in the name of his son Navin
The government had formed the committee under former secretary Sharada Prasad Trital following complaints that government land at Baluwatar has been transferred to some individuals. The committee had submitted the report to the government in December 2018 concluding that the land transferred to individuals belonged to the government.
The committee had advised the government to ask the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police to investigate how ownership of the land was transferred to individuals and investigate the state of such government land across the country.
The committee stated that the then king Mahendra after the coup in 1961 had confiscated 14 ropanis land of Nepali Congress leader Suvarna Shumsher Rana and his father Kanchan Shumsher in Baluwatar. The government four years later acquired 285 ropanis of Rana's land in Baluwatar by paying compensation.
The PM's residence, chief justice's residence, speaker's residence and the central office of Nepal Rastra Bank are currently situated in 172 ropanis out of that 285 ropanis.
Land mafia in connivance with staffers at the Land Revenue Office has transferred ownership of the remaining 113 ropanis of land to different individuals, the committee has concluded. The land owned by Paudel is out of that 113 ropanis.
The land was transferred to Paudel from wives of Shobha Kanta Dhakal and Ram Kumar Subedi who have been dubbed the land mafia by the Trital committee.
