CDOs given 15 days for collecting property details of transport committees

KATHMANDU, May 16: The government has intensified its crackdown on the transport committees by ordering the District Administration Offices to collect property details of all the erstwhile transport committees within 15 days.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday directed the chief district officers of all 77 districts to collect details of both movable and immovable properties of all the committees and organizations registered by transport operators under the Association Act 1997 and send the details to the ministry and the Department of Transportation Management (DoTM) within 15 days.

The directive was issued by the ministry in line with the ministry’s earlier decision to initiate an anti-money laundering investigation into the transport committees. As per the order of the ministry, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has already frozen the bank accounts of 245 transport committees. Such committees have been accused of amassing huge amounts of property by operating cartels.

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On Tuesday, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa held a meeting with Minister for Physical Infrastructure and NRB Governor Chiranjibi Nepal and decided to collect property details of the committees. 

“Even though the committees’ bank accounts have been frozen, the government still does not have details of the committee’s immovable properties. So, Tuesday’s meeting decided to seek such details for further investigation,” said Kiran Bhattarai, press advisor of the home minister. 

According to him, the chief district officers will seek property details of the committees with banks at the district levels and also ask the committees to submit their other property details.

“Not just that, details about the shares of various companies held by such committees and houses owned by them have also been sought,” Bhattarai added. 

As per the Association Registration Act, all assets owned by the committees will come under government ownership if any such organizations are scrapped or cease to operate in line with the government’s regulations.