Budhanilkantha bribery probe

Following frequent charges of corruption and irregularity at Budhanilkantha School, the National Vigilance Centre (NVC) has formed a probe committee.

The four-member committee led by Shyam Raj Khanal, NVC joint secretary, has two weeks to investigate the case. The Budhanilkantha staff union had filed a case against Principle Narayan Prasad Sharma Poudel and School Management Committee at the anti-graft body claiming that the duo was involved in irregularity. Flouting the decision of the parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and International Relations to announce an open competition while recruiting the school principal, the then Education Secretary Shankar Pandey on June 22 wrote to Sharma to continue his term.

Sharma faces dozens of allegations of corruption on the 163-page charge sheet. He has been charged of misusing scholarship quotas, corruption in building construction, purchase of furniture, recruiting staffs and teachers and irregularity in staff promotion. Shrama has been at the helm of Budhanilkantha for the last 17 years.

The school, with infrastructure worth billions of rupees, was established by the British government in 1972. Since 1994, the Government of Nepal is looking after the institution that has glorious past.