Tulsipur, December 23
Minister for Irrigation Dipak Giri, who is also lawmaker from Dang constituency 5, is facing charges of misappropriating Rs 30 million from the electoral constituency special infrastructure programme.
Sharada Kumari Bishwakarma, a CPN-UML lawmaker from Dang 5 under the proportionate system, had, on Monday, filed a case against Giri accusing the latter of flouting the programme’s operational procedures.
A single bench of Justice Sriman Kumar Gautam, after an initial hearing on the case, issued an interim order directing the defendants to stop all works related to the programme in Dang 5 and stop and budget release for the same for now. The court has told the defendants to furnish a written reply within 15 days.
Bamdev Pandey, section officer at the court, said: The interim order is for 20 days. After the expiry of the order, the court will issue its verdict. The court has given the defendants 15 days to furnish their written replies.
Dang 5 gets Rs 30 million from the programme for its development. A meeting on November 21 had allocated around 14.5 lakh each for improving infrastructure in 16 community schools in eight VDCs and two community schools in Tulsipur municipality. The same meeting had allocated four million rupees for improving infrastructure in Siddha Prithvi Secondary Boarding School.
Lawmaker Bishwakarma had been airing her objection, accusing concerned sides of not inviting her at the meeting and allocating funds for projects for which local people had not sought budget.
Bishwakarma has made 13 officials, including Minister Giri, local development officer of Dang and chiefs of infrastructure development offices, the defendants.
She has accused the officials of flouting relevant working procedures, selecting projects haphazardly, not informing her, a project select committe member, about the meeting and allocating funds by piling pressure on and influencing other project selection committee members, among others.
