Kathmandu, Feb 26: Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has clarified that there was no government decision made regarding leasing out the land owned by the Nepal Trust during his leadership. Issuing a press statement here Wednesday, leader Deuba expressed his disagreement at the rumors doing rounds in the wake of issuance of the white paper of the Trust on Tuesday, which claimed that some of the Trust’s land were leased out while he was the Prime Minister. Expressing his qualm over mentioning of his name in those decisions of the Trust made without his knowledge or involvement during his leadership, the former Prime Minister denied his involvement in this matter. “The Nepal Trust Act-2064 BS defines the Nepal Trust as an autonomous organization whose decisions are made by its board members and certain bureaucrats. Hence, it is politically as well as legally inappropriate to claim my involvement in the decisions of the Trust regarding the leasing out of the land, ” read the statement. According to Deuba, the allegation against him was a deliberate attempt to divert the attention from the leaked audio conversation related to the procurement of security printing press and bargaining for Rs 700 million as bribe as well as to hide away other irregularities relating to the leasing out of the Trust’s land for the Gokarna Forest Resort and so forth.
