Case against 6 including Mayor for irregularities in construction of Bharat Lake

The Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission has filed a case in a special court on Tuesday against Mayor Bharat Bahadur Thapa (currently suspended), Deputy Mayor Leela Kumari Moktan, then Chief Administrative Officer of the city Bimal Kumar Pokharel, Chief Planning Engineer Sagar Poudel, then Accounts Officer Vishwaraj Pokharel and then Chief of District Coordination Committee Sarlahi Methur Chaudhary. yes The authority has fixed a fine of 30 million 29 lakh rupees and has demanded a fine and imprisonment from the accused.

In the forest area under the Sagarnath Forest Development Project, Sagarnath Forest Development Project and the conditions set by the report for excavating stones, gravel and sand for the construction of Bagmati Machhapokhari I in Bagmati-4 and 12 without obtaining approval from the federal government It is mentioned in the indictment filed in the court that the construction material was extracted in violation. Originally named Machhapokhari, the lake was given its own name (Bharat) by the Chief Thapa. According to the authority's spokesperson Narahari Ghimire, punishment has been demanded against the defendant for 3 offences, namely preparing false documents, illegally damaging public property and preparing false reports.

During the construction of the lake, there was a complaint of irregularities in the sale and distribution of river products. Through the investigation of the authority, it has been revealed that Thapa and others prepared a fake environmental impact assessment report and extracted 10 times more riverine material than the limit set by it. According to the report, only 500,000 cubic meters of stone, gravel and sand were allowed to be excavated during the construction of the lake, but on the contrary, more than 4700,000 cubic meters were excavated. It has been found that even the master plan of the lake has not been approved.

Thapa was suspended after the authority itself filed a corruption case on Chait 28, 2080 with a demand of Rs 53.3 million for illegal wealth acquisition. Thapa is the mayor elected by the Maoists. Another case was filed against Thapa after the case was not resolved by the special court. The authority has mentioned in the charge sheet that a separate investigation is being conducted on the illegal expenditure of Rs. The authority has said that since other facts and evidence are being collected in this case, additional charge sheets will be filed against more people involved. In addition, the authority has mentioned that an investigation is being conducted on this matter for constructing the lake in violation of the forest law.

Wagmati municipality decided to build a fish pond on 2nd Chait 2075. Before that, the District Coordination Committee, Sarlahi had prepared a 'Preliminary Environmental Test, 2075' for the excavation and collection of construction materials such as stone, gravel, sand for the construction of a pond on the land near Wagmati River. It was mentioned that the plan will be approved and verified and will be 2 kilometers long, 50 meters wide to 130 meters wide, and 2.5 meters deep.

Municipality passed a proposal to construct a multi-purpose fishpond on 150 bigha of river upland land in the catchment area of ​​the old Budhi Wagmati, west of the railway line in Ward No. 4 and 12, east of the Wagmati Dam. In which Machhapokhri 1 and Machhapokhri 2 were said to be constructed. Accordingly, it seems that 567.0 million 97 thousand rupees have been spent on the construction of the lake, which has proceeded from the federal, state and local level budgets till 22 June 2080.

The authorities of Sagarnath project had drawn the attention of the municipality many times saying that the lake was being built illegally. On August 18, 2076, the project sent a letter to the municipality stating that there is no consent for fishpond construction on the land under its management. The municipality ignored it and proceeded with the project.