CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli had not identified controversial businessman Min Bahadur Gurung as the donor of land for building the ruling party's central office before laying foundation stone for the office.
The party had suddenly called secretariat meeting on Thursday, that fell on the day of Fulpati during the ongoing Dashai festival, giving a notice of less than 24 hours. Oli, who is also the prime minister, told the party office-bearers during the meeting to allot time to attend laying of foundation stone for the party office on Friday saying an altruist has agreed to donate land, according to an office-bearer.
"Why do you need name? Come tomorrow. You will know there," another office-bearer quoted Oli as saying whenVice-chairs Asta Laxmi Shakya and Yubaraj Gyawali asked who that altruist was. Vice-chair Surendra Pandey told Setopati that Oli only revealed that the person was a former party cadre but just a well-wisher now during the secretariat meeting on Thursday.
Office Secretary Bhisma Adhikari then sent text message to the central members along with location map of the land at Dhunge Adda of Kirtipur Municipality to invite them for the function.
The party leaders knew that the altruist was controversial businessman Gurung, who has been convicted in Baluwatar land grab scam, only at the time of laying foundation stone on Friday.
Gurung and his wife Sabitri Gurung donated 10 ropanis and 14 annas of land and also pledged to build a sprawling modern office in the land and hand that over to the party by Ghatasthapana the next year.
Party office-bearers confide that only Oli, General Secretary Shankar Pokharel and Deputy General Secretary Bishnu Rimal knew about the plan to get the party office built by Gurung.
The issue has been widely slammed inside the party with standing committee member Binda Pandey calling the decision insult of 550,000 party cadres and 2.8 million voters. Taking to the social networking site Facebook Pandey has stressed that a political party seeking such help for building office and the businessman providing such help are both wrong and urged the party leadership to correct the mistake to save dignity of the party built by leaders like Madan Bhandari and Manmohan Adhikari.
Central member Usha Kiran Timsina has called acceptance of donation by the ruling party from a controversial businessman who was sued by the government corruption and stressed that the 550,000 party cadres who pay levy can afford to build the party office and bear operational expenses of the party.
The party's office built 30 years back at Madan Nagar, Balkhu was destroyed by the Gorkha Earthquake in 2015. The party had then shifted its office to the building of Pasang Lhamu Memorail Academy in Dhumbarahi. It had then shifted the office to a private building of businessman Sanjay Agrawal at Thapathali after renting of the land provided by the government for use of the academy to a third party invited criticisms.
It was then shifted to the Tulsi Lal Memorial Academy in Chyasal on April 22, 2022 while the party's industry department still operates from Agrawal's house at Thapathali. The land at Chyasal has also been provided by the government for use of the academy and renting of the building for five years by the party has also been criticized.
Oli, who has remained party chairman right from the time the office was shifted to Dhumbarahi, has opted for even more controversial alternative of seeking help from a convicted businessman involved in land grab scam.
The Special Court in February had found promoter of Bhatbhateni Supermarket Gurung guilty in the Baluwatar land grab scam and sentenced him for two years fined him Rs 8 million.
The probe committee formed by the government under former secretary Sharada Prasad Trital had submitted the report to the government in December 2018 concluding that the land transferred to individuals in Baluwatar belonged to the government.
The committee's report stated that the government land inside Lalita Residence reached to different individuals due to Cabinet decisions under many prime ministers. It had recommended that the land should be taken back by revoking a few of those Cabinet decisions.
UML Vice-chair Bishnu Paudel was also dragged in the scam as eight annas of grabbed land (plot number 309 and 3015) had been transferred to his son from Uma Dhakal and Madhavi Subedi, wives of Shobha Kanta Dhakal and Ram Prasad Subedi identified as land mafia by the Trital committee.
Some UML leaders citing the then prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal have told Setopati that Paudel facilitated Cabinet decisions to provide grounds for the land grab and had even arranged donation of Rs 40 million to the party in return for the decisions.
But Paudel was not charged in the case after his son agreed to return the government land once the scam came to the fore.
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 was out of that 113 ropanis.
