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Biratnagar, Nov 17:  Two senior officials in Koshi Province are under scrutiny following the emergence of details about the misuse of state facilities.

Speaker Ambar Bahadur Bista has been using a government vehicle with a private number plate, and Internal Affairs and Law Minister Rewati Raman Bhandari has been collecting housing payments while living in his own house.

According to ministry records, Minister Bhandari has been receiving 29,000 rupees per month for housing, despite owning a home in Itahari. Since taking office, he has already collected 290,000 rupees under this allowance in ten months.

Ministers receive a monthly salary of 61,360 rupees, along with allowances for communication, electricity and water. With housing allowance included, Bhandari’s total monthly pay reaches 95,360 rupees.

Law allows a housing allowance for ministers when no official residence is provided, but provincial law bars lawmakers who live in or around Biratnagar from claiming rent. The law on ministerial perks is less clear, and Bhandari has used that gap to justify the payment.

He cited Section 4(3) of the 2075 law on salaries and facilities, saying the allowance he receives is not rent but a residence benefit. He argued that he had to modify his house to accommodate security personnel and staff, including building temporary rooms and toilets. He also claimed he saved the state money by not using the official minister’s quarters, which he said would have cost the government far more in rent and furnishings.

Despite this defence, political and ethical questions have been raised, with critics saying the spirit of the law has been ignored.

Speaker Bista faces a separate controversy. He has been using two vehicles even though the law allows him only one. One of these cars, a government vehicle bearing the official number Province 1–04–001 Cha 0047, has been fitted with a private red number plate and used for family purposes.

This comes at a time when several official vehicles were destroyed during protests in late Bhadra, forcing senior staff to travel in city buses due to shortages. Bista has not returned the car kept at his home. When questioned, he stated that he took an extra vehicle for emergencies and claimed that others had also used government cars with private plates.

The issue is embarrassing for his party, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party. Its chair, Rajendra Lingden, often says misuse of public property amounts to corruption. Yet a Speaker from his own party is now accused of doing exactly that.

A similar misuse happened earlier. Former Speaker Pradeep Kumar Bhandari had also used a provincial assembly vehicle with a private plate for personal work and returned it only after leaving office.

People’s News Monitoring Service