The financially teetering institution, whose accumulated loss ran up to around Rs 19 billion till last year, revealed the details of its encroached lands in 21 places across the country in the presence of Energy Minsiter Gokarna Bista who heads its board as president.[break]
Some 1,174 ropanis of land has been encroached from Trishuli Hydro Electricity Center in Nuwakot alone while 118 ropanis of Surkhet Distribution Center and 66 ropanis of Pharping Hydro Electricity Center have been illegally occupied. Significantly, over 35 ropanis of land worth over Rs 1.14 billion has been encroached from Balaju Sub Station in Kathmandu Metropolis.
Minister Bista, who has proposed to make Energy Secretary the ex officio president of the NEA board from now onward to reduce political interference in the institution, said anybody involved directly or indirectly in the encroachment would be dealt according to the law of the land.
NEA--formed in 1985 under the Nepal Electricity Authority Act 1984 through a merger of the Department of Electricity at the Ministry of Water Resources, Nepal Electricity Corporation and related Development Boards--had formed assets management division in 1997 to prepare records about the land and other assets. But it took 14 years for NEA to complete the full report that was revealed Wednesday.
NEA had lodged cases against those involved in Balaju encroachment--that includes education minister of the erstwhile royal regime Hari Bahadur Thapa, and Rupak Rajbanshi, son of the principal of Siddhartha Vansthali School--at Kathmandu District Court over seven months ago but has failed to make any headway in getting its land back.
“We have to follow the legal procedures to get our land back so it is going to take some time,” said Minister Bista explaining the delay. Newly appointed Managing Director of NEA Deependra Nath Sharma assured that the process of recovering the encroached land would be expedited.
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