Kathmandu. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority arrested Tirtha Bhattarai, the then Chief Immigration Officer of the Tribhuvan International Airport Office, on Chaitra 2081.
There was a huge stir in the Home Ministry after Joint Secretary Bhattarai was arrested. He was transferred to the Home Ministry just a day before his arrest.
After his arrest, the opposition parties in parliament, including the CPN-Maoist, the CPN-Unified Socialist Party, and the National Independent Party, began to obstruct the parliament, accusing Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak of being involved in the setting up of the visit visa case and demanding the formation of a parliamentary inquiry committee.
After trying to run the parliament for more than 15 days without any agreement, the CPN-Maoist became flexible and reached a 2-point agreement with the ruling party. The first of the 2 points agreed upon by the Maoists states, ‘The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority is investigating issues related to visit visas and immigration, and the commission will bring the work to a conclusion.’ The Government of Nepal will provide necessary assistance as requested by the Commission for the investigation into the matter.’
Also, the second point states that ‘the Government of Nepal expresses its commitment to take concrete initiatives to resolve the problems seen in the past regarding immigration and visit visas by conducting the necessary study and investigation and making appropriate arrangements for policy, legal and structural reforms.’
After reaching an agreement with the Maoists, the government decided to form a high-level committee to study and investigate. The decision number 4 of the Council of Ministers held on Ashad 20 stated, ‘A seven-member High-Level Study and Investigation Committee 2082 will be formed under the chairmanship of Shankar Das Bairagi, former Chief Secretary of the Government of Nepal, and with the joint secretaries of various ministries as members, to resolve the problems faced in the past regarding immigration and visit visas.’
Although the decision of the Council of Ministers calls for an investigation, the committee’s terms of reference (TOR) does not give the committee the authority to investigate. The committee has only been asked to submit suggestions on 8 out of the 9 points of the TOR given by the Ministry of Home Affairs. In one such point, it is mentioned that an immediate and long-term plan will be proposed to facilitate travel for people coming and going on visit visas.
A member of the committee told Singha Durbar, ‘The main responsibility of the committee is to provide immediate and long-term suggestions to resolve the problems seen in the visit visa case, there is no mandate for irregularities.’
The employee said that since the mandate given to the committee does not give the authority to investigate or investigate any person involved in the visit visa scandal, this is purely a suggestion committee.
The committee is chaired by former Chief Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi. Similarly, the six members are Tirtha Chilwal from the Ministry of Finance, Anand Kafle from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mani Ratna Sharma from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ram Krishna Lamichhane from the Ministry of Tourism, Aruna Joshi Shramam from the Ministry of Law and Pradeep Koirala from the Ministry of Employment. This task force has been given three months to work.
Here are the mandates of the committee:
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्