The government provided Rs 4.5 million for the treatment of former president Dr Ram Baran Yadav and former prime minister Jhala Nath Khanal in the current fiscal year starting mid-July 2022.
According to a report on financial assistance made public by the Finance Ministry, Rs 55 million was distributed to different individuals for financial assistance with Rs 2.5 million spent on former president Yadav’s treatment and Rs 2 million on former PM Khanal’s treatment.
Yadav was given Rs 2.5 million as per a Cabinet decision on October 20, 2022. The then government was headed by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba.
The government had also provided Rs 6 million to Yadav for his cancer treatment in the USA before that.
Similarly, the government released Rs 2 million for former PM Khanal's treatment as per a Cabinet decision on September 16, 2022. It had previously provided Rs 3 million to Khanal, who underwent a kidney transplant in New Delhi, India.
Bhutanese human rights leader Teknath Rijal was twice provided financial assistance amounting to Rs 2.7 million.
The government released Rs 13,084,000 – the highest amount in this fiscal year – in Mangsir (mid-November to mid-December). The federal and provincial elections were held on November 20, 2022.
Even though the election code of conduct prohibited distributing financial assistance, the report says more than Rs 13 million was released during that one-month period.
