Claiming that his post of general manager is still valid, Sharma briefly visited Sajha Prakashan on August 30, and September 6 and 13, according to officials at Sajha Prakashan.

KATHMANDU, Oct 6: Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Padma Kumari Aryal has been accused of protecting Dolindra Prasad Sharma, former chairman and general manager of the state-run publishing house, Sajha Prakashan.

Claiming that his post of general manager is still valid, Sharma briefly visited Sajha Prakashan on August 30, and September 6 and 13, according to officials at Sajha Prakashan. "He came here on September 31 again along with a group of police personnel and left with them. On October 1, he came to office at around 6:30 am and signed the attendance register for his absence days," they said. However, the staffers said they protested against Sharma's action and fudged his signatures on the attendance register.

"The situation in Sajha Prakashan is tense these days," said senior official Hom Nath Bhattarai. "Minister Aryal should intervene to resolve the problem," he added.

Other Sajha officials alleged that Minister Aryal has, instead of resolving the problem, complicated it by appointing parallel board members. She should implement the recent Supreme Court decision to resolve the problem, they said.

Sajha Prakashan board has elected and nominated members. Elected members include Bijaya Subba, Harihar Khanal, and Jeevan Chandra Koirala and nominated members were Pradip Nepal, Dinanath Sharma, and Dr. Krishna Hari Baral. All three nominated members resigned over a year ago after reports of massive irregularities at Sajha surfaced. After the resignation of the three board members, Mukti Subedi, DP Aryal, and Harihar Adhikari were appointed board members by the then deputy prime minister and education minister Gopal Man Shrestha. But after Minister Aryal two months ago appointed three new board members, Subedi and Aryal moved the Supreme Court against the appointments. The court ordered the government to reinstate Subedi and Aryal.

Minister Aryal had appointed three members and chairperson at Sajha two months ago. Raghu Ram Bista, joint-secretary of the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation was appointed as chairman of Sajha while Ram Kumar Shrestha aka Ram Binaya, Gayatri Lamsal, and Mohan Duwal were nominated as board members. Lamsal is reportedly the wife of Minister Aryal's personal secretary.

Similarly, about four years ago, the then Appellate Court Patan had termed illegal the appointments of Dolindra and board members at Sajha Prakashan by the Ministry of Education. And on September 23, the Supreme Court upheld the Appellate Court decision reinstating Tej Kumar Sharma as chairman of Sajha and canceling all the decisions of the then education minister Gopal Man Shrestha. As per the court verdict, Sajha Prakashan is under the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation.

Sajha Prakashan is operating under the cooperatives manuals (2021BS) and Sajha/Cooperatives law while the work division regulations approved by the cabinet meeting of 2069BS kept Sajha Prakashan under the Ministry of Education.

The tenure of Dolindra as chairman expired on July 27 while his term as general manager is for three years. However, the recent court decision says that Tej Kumar Sharma, who was appointed during the tenure of Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, is the chairman of Sajha Prakashan. Sharma's tenure of four years will expire on October 10.

Then education minister Chitra Lekha Yadav had appointed Dolindra as general manager of Sajha on January 19, 2015. Yadav also appointed Pradip Nepal, Dinanath Sharma and Dr. Krishna Hari Baral as board members. GM Sharma was also given the post of chairperson on July 26, 2015. After his terms expired in January 2017, he was reappointed as general manager for four years during the tenure of education minister Dhani Ram Paudel.

But on September 24, 2017, the education ministry sacked Sharma on the charge of irregularities. But Sharma challenged the ministry's decision at the Supreme Court and the court on November 1 of the same year stayed the ministry's decision.

Dolindra Sharma was not available for comments.

 
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