President Deuba refutes his involvement in leasing Nepal Trust’s land

President of the opposition party, Nepali Congress, Sher Bahadur Deuba, has refuted his involvement in leasing Nepal Trust’s land.

Demanding time with Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota in today’s meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR), NC President Deuba expressed concern, blaming that his name was mentioned on political prejudice in the white paper released by the Nepal Trust office. Also the former Prime Minister, he argued, "No decision was made to provide Nepal Trust’s land in lease during my premiership. I’ve severe objection to it," he stressed.

A white paper issued by Chairperson of the Nepal Trust and Deputy Prime Minister Ishwor Pokharel few days ago had implicated leader Deuba in the decision of providing land to Yeti Holdings when he was the Prime Minister.

Blaming the government of its involvement in corruption in course of providing land of Nepal Trust, Gokarna Resort and expansion of 4G service, the NC President said that the government should give answer in the parliament in these issues.

Accusing of large-scale financial irregularities in the security print procurement, the former Prime Minister sought the Prime Minister’s reply in regard with the alleged involvement of the then government Spokesperson and Minister for Communications and Information Technology in the ‘audio tape’ scandal. The tape apparently suggests his (the then minister’s) involvement in the illegal commission seeking.

The main opposition leader urged the government to take high alert in the aftermath of the spread of deadly coronavirus in over 50 countries in the world and the identification of Nepal as one of the most vulnerable zones in terms of virus infection by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and inform the House about the virus prevention efforts.

Similarly, Socialist Party’s lawmaker Sarita Giri accused the government of trying to increase the market price by imposing more tax in petroleum products in the name of infrastructure development tax. She was of the view of taking any decision on the matter only after going through all-party discussions and demanded the government withdraw the decision. "The government has suppressed the parliament’s rights while the jurisdiction of imposing tax on goods fall under the parliament not the Council of Ministers," she reminded.

It may be noted that the Council of Ministers on February 24 had decided to impose Rs 10 per liter (as infrastructure tax) in diesel, petrol and aviation fuel.