Sudurpashchim's Forest Ministry Plagued by Corruption Scandals Amid Leadership Vacuum

Dhangadhi. The Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest, and Environment in Sudurpashchim Province is currently without a leader. Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah himself has been handling the responsibilities of the ministry.

Despite the ministerial seat being vacant, the ministry is rife with internal disputes and scandals. Looking at the events of the past two years, various scandals related to financial manipulation and commission bargaining have come to light in this ministry.

Many believe that three major scandals made public recently have exposed the irregularities and financial dealings prevalent within the ministry.

The first scandal is the audio recording of policy corruption setting.

A sensational audio clip was made public on Chaitra 16, 2081 BS. Following this, Laxman Kishore Chaudhary, who was the minister from the Nagarik Unmukti Party, announced his resignation at a press conference held at the ministry on the same day.

His resignation was less a voluntary act and more a result of pressure from the audio scandal. In the released audio, Minister Chaudhary could be heard bargaining for a large sum of money with timber traders to pass the Sustainable Forest Management Working Procedure.

It was mentioned that Rs 2.5 to 3 million was demanded from the traders for passing the procedure, and Rs 500,000 of that amount was to be given to the Chief Minister. Initially, Minister Chaudhary unsuccessfully tried to defend himself by calling it a political conspiracy against him. He claimed the audio was old and that he was confused while listening to the staff and traders as a new minister, but the question of morality did not allow him to remain in office.

This incident established strong evidence that policies and regulations in the ministry are made not for the benefit of the public but to fill the pockets of ministers and employees. According to an employee of the ministry, such transactions made in the name of creating working procedures clearly show how active the syndicate exploiting Sudurpashchim's forest resources is.

The second scandal is the tussle over appointments and the conflict between the Chief Minister and the Minister.

After the departure of Laxman Kishore Chaudhary, Rameshwar Chaudhary from the same party took the ministerial seat, but his tenure was also not free from controversy. When Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah dismissed him on Ashad 19, 2082 BS, another major dispute within the ministry surfaced. The core of this dispute was the appointment of the Executive Director at the Khaptad Tourism Area Development Committee.

The power struggle came to the surface when Minister Chaudhary appointed Hemraj Joshi of Doti as the Executive Director without even a minor consultation with the Chief Minister.

The race to appoint a person close to oneself to this attractive post, which offers Deputy Secretary level service-facilities and control over a large budget, created a rift in the relationship between the Chief Minister and the Minister. After the Chief Minister demanded his resignation over the phone, Minister Chaudhary became more aggressive.

Instead of resigning, he publicly challenged the Chief Minister, saying, 'Dismiss me if you can.' Eventually, he was dismissed the day after the budget was passed.

This episode reaffirmed the fact that political appointments within the ministry are based not only on competence but also on power sharing and commissions.

The third scandal is the bribery allegation against the Chief Minister and the arrest of an employee.

Before the scandals involving these two ministers could subside, a third and even more serious scandal occurred in the ministry. Senior Divisional Forest Officer Krishna Dutt Bhatt publicly made the sensational allegation that Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah demanded a bribe of Rs 500,000 from him, and his transfer was due to his refusal to pay the amount.

It was not a trivial matter for a high-ranking employee to directly accuse the Chief Minister of taking a bribe. This allegation sent ripples through Sudurpashchim's politics. The main opposition party, CPN (UML), immediately demanded a judicial investigation. CPN (UML) Parliamentary Party Leader Khagaraj Bhatta insisted on a serious investigation through the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee or the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

According to him, it is suspicious that the Chief Minister, who speaks of zero tolerance for corruption, has not paved the way for an impartial investigation into the serious allegation leveled against him.

There is another side to this episode. The employee making the allegation, Bhatt, himself has a controversial image. Audios and videos of him using obscene language against a minister and illegally collecting money from subordinate offices had already been made public. The CIAA was already investigating him. Immediately after accusing the Chief Minister, Bhatt was arrested in a case related to cybercrime.

Following the serious allegations against him, Chief Minister Shah refuted them in a press conference. He stated that he had not taken a bribe from any employee and that good governance was his top priority. He said, 'The allegation against me is fabricated and misleading. If it is proven anywhere that I demanded or took a bribe, I am ready to face any legal and political action, but the government's image cannot be tarnished by making baseless allegations.'

Chief Minister Shah took this incident seriously and directed an investigation into the accusing employee, Krishna Bhatt, himself.

The question of why Sudurpashchim's Forest Ministry repeatedly becomes the center of such disputes has naturally arisen. A large area of Sudurpashchim is covered by forests. Large sums of money are transacted here in timber felling, export of valuable medicinal herbs, and contracts for riverine materials. A small working procedure or regulation made by the ministry can benefit large contractors by crores of rupees. Ministry employees admit that disputes arise here because ministers and high-ranking officials seek to gain a certain share of that benefit as a commission.

Another reason is the unstable politics of the province. The relationship of vested interests between the bureaucracy and the political leadership is also a cause of controversy.

There are discussions within the ministry about large financial transactions involved in appointments made to places like the Khaptad Tourism Development Committee. When there is a disagreement over such sharing and transactions, public spats occur between ministers and the Chief Minister, or between employees and leadership.