The House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has ordered the annulment of the deal to buy a plot of property in Lumbini’s Ramgram Area and lease it to a private firm for 99 years.
During its meeting yesterday, the Committee asked the government to terminate the agreement between the Lumbini Development Trust and Pramista Land Ltd. and searched for funding for study, development, and conservation connected to the Ramgram Area.
Committee President Rishikhesh Pokharel said, “The Committee has decided to direct the government to scrap the agreement related to the Ramgram Area and inked by the Lumbini Development Trust effective from today itself.”
“The Committee also instructed the government to take forward further investigations on this issue and ensure that this kind of act does not get repeated in other places,” added President Pokharel.
The Committee had previously discussed the matter with Sudan Kirati, Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation; Deepak Kafle, Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation; and Vice-President Lharkyal Lama of Trust, among others.
The Committee Members stated during the discussions that the contract needs to be canceled because the company that was awarded the contract had a controversial background, procurement laws were broken, commercial infrastructures were being built without taking into account the existence of the religious site, and the contract was awarded without a competitive bidding process.
The Committee has instructed the involved parties to refrain from constructing any infrastructure in the Lumbini Area that surpasses the guidelines established by the Department of Archeology and UNESCO.
The Committee has also instructed the government to reserve funding for the land.
The government has been instructed by the Committee to quickly provide the Public Accounts Committee with the report of the investigative panel that was established to look into the Ncell share deal.
