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Eleven candidates have filed their candidacies for the elections to the presidents of 10 thematic committees under the House of Representatives (HoR).

According to the Federal Parliament Secretariat, candidates from various political parties including the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center), Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party, CPN (Unified Socialist), and the Janamat Party filed their nominations for the elections.

The Finance Committee receives the candidacy of Santosh Chalise of Nepali Congress while Raj Kishore Yadav of the Janata Samajbadi has filed his candidacy for the President of International Relations and Tourism Committee.

Similarly, Abdul Khan of Janamat and RSP's Ganesh Parajuli have filed their nominations for the Industry and Commerce, and Labour and Consumer Interest Committee respectively. 

Bimala Subedi of Maoist Center has filed her nomination for Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee while Arju Rana Deuba filed her nomination for Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources Committee and Kiran Kumar Shah for Women and Social Welfare Affairs Committee, and Ramhari Khatiwada filed their candidacies for the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee.

Likewise, Deepak Bahadur Singh of Rastriya Prajatantra Party has registered his candidacy for Infrastructure Development and Bhanubhakta Joshi, representing the Unified Socialist, is contesting for the presidency of the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee.

Rhishikesh Pokhrel of the UML filed his candidacy for the Public Account Committee.

The election procedures of the thematic committees under the House of Representatives have been initiated after nine months of the completion of HoR election.

The delay in electing the leadership for such thematic committees which are considered as the 'mini parliament' had its impact on the delivery of the committees. 

The Secretariat has given the time from 11 am to 4 pm today to register the nominations for the elections, according to Secretary Padma Prasad Pandey. 

In absence of the elections of the presidents of committees, their senior-most members (by age) are chairing the committees' meetings.

The ruling coalition has decided to give the leadership of one parliamentary committee to the Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

A meeting of the chief whips of ruling parties held on Sunday morning agreed to give the leadership of the Infrastructure Development Committee of the House of Representatives to the Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

The RPP has decided to make the Infrastructure Development Committee of member Deepak Singh as the candidate of the president.

CPN (Maoist Center) Madhav Sapkota will support Singh in the election, a Maoist lawmaker said.

According to the source, the ruling coalition decided to give leadership of one parliamentary committee to the RPP to seek support in Koshi Province.

Among the 10 thematic committees, it was agreed that the Maoist Center will lead two committees.

A government document forgery case will be filed against those arrested in the Lalita Niwas land grab case.

The District Attorney Office, Kathmandu has decided to prosecute the case only in the forgery of government documents.

“It was decided not to file a charge sheet in organized crime. We are going to register the case only in the forgery of government documents,” an official at the District Attorney Office, Kathmandu said.

The Office has informed that a case against 290 persons has been filed at the District Court for forging government documents.

According to him, a case will not be filed against former prime minister duo Baburam Bhattarai and Madhav Nepal.

The Office has also decided to not make former election commission Sudhir Kumar Sah a defendant in the Lalita Niwas land grab case.

The Attorney’s office registered the case after studying the investigation report submitted by the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police.

In the report prepared by the CIB, it has decided not to make former prime minister duo Bhattarai and Nepal defendants in the scam.

But the court had issued an order to bring the decision makers in the case under investigation.

The CIB had recorded the statements of Bhattarai and Nepal only a day before it submitted the report to the District Attorney Office.

Four years ago, a case was filed against the then prime ministers Madhav Nepal and Baburam Bhattarai in the Lalita Niwas land grab case.

The hearing of the case has not been held yet.

During the Madhav Kumar Nepal government, Bijay Kumar Gachhadar of the Nepali Congress served as a Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Deep Basnyat was the secretary at the ministry. It was during their tenure that they decided to fraudulently register plots of land in the names of numerous individuals and fake tenants.

The Nepal Cabinet had made a decision to expand the prime minister’s residence and construct a road within Lalita Niwas by compensating individuals who had illegally occupied the land. This agenda was brought by Gachhadar in the Cabinet. It has been found that the Nepal Cabinet made three different decisions in three separate meetings, providing an opportunity for the accused parties to engage in the scam.

All of the decisions were against the law. Several members in the Nepal Cabinet have stated that Lalita Niwas-related matters were never discussed during meetings, indicating the potential direct involvement of former prime minister Nepal.

The probe committee identifies Shova Kanta Dhakal and Ram Kumar Subedi as key individuals involved in the scam, labeling them as ‘land mafias’. From the early stages of the scam, these individuals have been implicated, as they still hold over 15 ropanis of Lalita Niwas land in their names, even after selling 30 ropanis of land to others.

The proprietor of Bhatbhateni Supermarket, Min Bahadur Gurung, and his family are owners of more than 29 ropanis of Lalita Niwas land. They acquired the land from Dhakal and Subedi. Furthermore, the duo also sold approximately five ropanis of land to former election commissioner Sudhir Kumar Shah.

When Bhattarai was prime minister, his Cabinet decided to transfer around three ropanis of land of Nepal government to ‘Pashupati Tinkinchha Guthi’ but the Trital-led committee had been unable to find about this Guthi. Neither the ministry officials nor the Guthi stakeholders know about the existence of this Guthi, raising suspicion against Bhattarai in the land grab case.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha has urged one and all to keep up the inter-caste and religious tolerance.

Addressing a press conference organized by Press Centre Nepal, Parsa chapter here today, he called for maintaining the unity in diversity since Nepal's identity is a nation with multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-cultural identities.

The DPM and Home Minister warned that the government would take action in accordance with the existing laws and the constitution against those undermining the social harmony and disturbing its unity. He also urged one and all to stand in favour of social goodwill and national unity along with tolerance towards each other's religion, culture, customs, faith, sentiments and traditions.

Stating that the government is committed to maintaining good governance in the country by eliminating corruption, DPM Shrestha also pledged to take the gold smuggling scam and the Lalita Niwas land grab scam to its final conclusion and to bring to justice all the culprits.

"In the beginning, the Department of Revenue Investigation carried out an investigation into the gold smuggling case and now the Nepal Police's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) is looking into this. We will also go for a high-level investigation process after carrying out the legal and structural and associated probe and reaching to a conclusion once the CIB completes its investigations," the Home Minister said.

According to him, CIB has already conducted its investigation into the Lalita Niwas land procurement scam and submitted its report to the Government Attorney Office. The Attorney Office will also move ahead with the prosecution process soon, he added.