The full text of the Special Court’s verdict on the case filed by the CIAA claiming corruption and financial irregularities leading to substandard work in the Sikta Irrigation Project is bizarre, incredibly disappointing, and appears to be a gross miscarriage of justice. In what can only be described as a shocking turn of events, the court has deemed the dissoluble soil in the project area responsible for the failure of the project!

KATHMANDU, March 18: The government has spent over Rs 18 billion on the development of the Sikta Irrigation Project in the past 17 years. The main canal of the project has been extended to 45 km west of Banke.

NEPALGUNJ, July 1:One of the national pride projects, Sikta Irrigation Project, has started releasing water to the fields from its western and eastern canals. The eastern canal is currently under construction.

NEPALGUNJ, Jan 15: Only 45% of work on eastern canal of Sikta Irrigation Project has been completed even though the construction deadline expired two months ago.

NEPALGUNJ, May 19: Breaching all the rules,  then director of the Sikta Irrigation Project Ramesh Basnet hastily awarded the contract for the construction of the eastern canal . On July 24, 2017, the construction company Kumar Kalika JV signed the contract for building the 53 kilometer  canal with a budget of Rs. 3.6 billion.

NEPALGUNJ, April 29: The Banke District Court has sent 18 land revenue officials of Banke and Bardiya districts to judicial custody. They had been arrested on the charge of transferring the ownership of huge chunks of land belonging to the Sikta Irrigation Project to private ownership through forgery.

KATHMANDU, April 26: The government has decided to repair the damaged sections of the Sikta Irrigation Project. Many sections of the canal had crumbled before the project's completion due to poor construction and negligence by the contractor.

NEPALGUNJ, April 12: Sikta Irrigation Project: A group of land brokers in collusion with land revenue officials are found to have illegally transferred the ownership of public land worth millions of rupees to the names of private individuals.

NEPALGUNJ, Dec 15: A two-member team of Australian experts has returned home after inspecting the western main canal of under-construction Sikta Irrigation Project in Banke district.

KATHMANDU, Dec 10: Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has filed case against only main officials of the civil contractor and consulting firm over irregularities in Sikta Irrigation Project. It has not made the construction company and the consulting firm defendant in the case filed at the Special Court.

NEPALGUNJ, Aug 28: Right after completion of the headwork of Sikta Irrigation Project in Agaiya of Banke, the locals had protested against the narrow outlet for water. They had expressed their fear that the narrow outlet would greatly risk their settlement. They had warned that the main canal which stretches from the east to the west would block the natural flow of water coming from the Chure range, risking inundation among the human settlements if the outlets would not let enough water pass through.