Home Minister Should Quit for A Fair Probe Into Human-trafficking Scandal

A Nepali Congress leader has advised Minister for Home Affairs, Ramesh Lekhak, to resign on moral grounds in the wake of serious charges leveled against him.

Shekhar Koirala, talking to journalists in Biratnagar on Saturday, said since his name has appeared in a corruption scandal involving the Department of Immigration, Minister Lekhak should put in papers and pave the way for an independent investigation into the case. 

Koirala argued that this move will show the minister is on high moral ground, pointing out that there’s a precedent of other high officials quitting their jobs to make way for investigations in the wake of serious charges. 

The suggestion comes in the wake of media reports quoting the chief of the immigration office at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Tirtha Raj Bhattarai, that the leadership of the Ministry of Home Affairs gets a sizable chunk of the money collected in the process of sending workers abroad illegally. 

On a different note, Koirala said: Constitutional agencies have become retirement clubs of sorts for retired government secretaries, and argued that cooling period has become necessary for them. He was referring to a proposed legal provision that stipulates a cooling period of two years for government secretaries in particular after their retirement, meaning that they won’t be able to join constitutional agencies right after their retirement.

The prevailing practice in Nepal is such that well-connected bureaucrats make arrangements in cahoots with political leadership for landing plum jobs in constitutional bodies well before their retirement, and they hardly have to stay idle even after 30 long years of service. 

On a different note, Koirala said parties having democracy as the main objective should be courageous enough to go for a referendum on crucial issues. He called on the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Center) to conduct a referendum on the Hindu state and constitutional monarchy.