Similarly, the committee has decided to forward the issue to the Prime Minister and Parliament as Rs 1.9 billion was released under the heading of variation of the canal as it was said that a narrow canal was constructed instead of originally planned. The committee said that the release of the amount was against the direction of the committee.
Earlier, the Ministry of Energy had replied that it was unable to follow the committee's direction. The reply letter reads that the construction works could not be forwarded if the PAC direction was to be followed.
Such decision of the Ministry has disregarded the parliament and therefore the committee decided to forward the issue to the PM and the parliament, committee chair Janardan Sharma said.
In the meeting, lawmaker Ramhari Khatiwada pointed out the need of taking effective decision in the issues as the Ministry was not following the direction of the committee.
He further stressed on bringing the Energy Minister and Secretary under the ambit of action. Stating that cost of Chameliya has been more by four folds, lawmaker Jaydev Joshi said that all those involved in the project so far from the beginning have been brought under the ambit of action and action should be taken against those violating the direction of the Parliament.
Stating that disrespecting the people's representatives and denying implementing the direction was disrespect of the state, lawmaker Dhanraj Gurung demanded to bring the Energy Minister and Energy Secretary under the ambit of investigation.
Likewise, lawmakers-- Tek Bahadur Basnet, Pashupati Chaulagain, Mina Pun, Bharat Kumar Shah, Hari Prasad Nepal and Dimple Kumari Jha, among others expressed the view to carry out real and true investigation over the irregularities regarding Chameliya.
The PAC had on June 28 directed to give payment only after investigation and to form a probe committee.
The PAC had determined that the Nepal Electricity Authority has faced loss while providing variation order as per the cost of 2013 in course of repair and maintenance of the shrunk tunnel of the project.
Committee President Janardan Sharma said that the Committee directed the construction company to resume works immediately. Although Rs 829.3 million had to be paid as per the variation order of the project, the NEA had paid Rs 1.9 billion.
A sub-committee formed under the coordination of PAC Committee member, Rajendra KC, directed not to give payment, determining corruption in the project.
The under construction project, at Darchula and Baitadi districts, started in January 2006, had to be completed in May 2011. The cost of the project has reached Rs 15.6 billion due to frequent variation. RSS
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