RAUTAHAT, Jan 14: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse and Authority (CIAA) and other concerned government offices have begun investigation into the encroachment of forest land in Rautahat.
After Republica reported on the issue of forest land encroachment in its Thursday edition, a team of the anti-graft body headed by Narendra Bhattarai, under-secretary of CIAA's regional office, Hetauda, reached Rautahat on Friday to investigate the matter. Before field inspection, the CIAA had instructed the other government offices District Forest Office of Rautahat to look into the matter.
Forest encroachment on the rise in Rautahat
The details provided by the government offices show that as many as 106 bigha of forest land of national forest in Rautahat was found registered in the name of private individuals.
According to CIAA, the team will be investigating the accused government officials of the Department of Survey, Department of Land Revenue, District Forest Office. It will be examining the documents from these offices to find out the details of the illegal owners of the land of three wards of Rangapur, Rautahat.
Uddhav Bahadur Thapa, Chief of District Administration office (DAO) said that the they have also been investigating into the matter, "We have taken this seriously and have started our investigations".
