KATHMANDU:Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has returned home today from Singapore after his health check-up.

PM Oli had gone to Singapore on August 3 accompanied by his spouse Radhika Shakya and other team members.

The Prime Minister, after returning back, tweeted about his health condition and thanked those who showed concern:

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Kathmandu, August 12

Mani Niraula, an education consultancy owner charged with swindling over Rs 11 million from at least 13 people aspiring to go to Australia, has surrendered to the police.

Niraula, operator of Queensland Education Foundation at Putalisadak, was collecting a sum ranging from Rs 500,000 to Rs 2.4 million from each youngster aspiring to go to Australia on dependent or tourist visa for the last two years.

&Niraula was collecting money from us by showing the picture of a girl named Rejina Hamal of Nepalgunj, who has obtained a visa to study in Australia,& said Amrit Raj Giri, 22, of Bhulvu Rural Municipality, Kavre, who has paid Rs 1.6 million to Niraula to apply for dependant visa to migrate to Australia. Giri was told he would have to perform &fake marriage& with Hamal to apply for dependent visa and file for a divorce upon reaching Australia.

At least three other people, who have given a total of Rs 2.6 million to Niraula, told THT that they were also shown the picture of the same girl and told the same thing about &fake marriage&. These three youngsters, as well as Giri, had handed over the money after communicating with Hamal on social media. &But I lost touch with Niraula and Hamal after handing over the money,& said Giri. Hamal could not be contacted.

At least 20 people, mostly youngsters accompanied by their parents, who were duped by Niraula, had gathered at Metropolitan Police Circle, Singha Durbar, today, seeking help to get their money back. Niraula is said to have duped up to 40 people mostly below the age of 25.

Niraula is also found to have used the picture of a boy to dupe girls aspiring to go to Australia. &I was shown a picture of a boy who I was told was a permanent resident of Australia,& a 20-something from Kanchanpur told THT on condition of anonymity. She had handed over Rs 500,000 to Niraula.

Niraula used to issue a cheque of the same amount that his clients deposited at his office to &win the confidence and substantiate he was not involved in unethical business&, according to victims. But victims who were duped by Niraula could not encash those cheques, as they were dud.

Around 13 of Niraulaclients have submitted an FIR at Metropolitan Police Circle, Singha Durbar, seeking his arrest but the police are yet to register the FIR.

&The FIR lacks certain details like full address of the accused and evidence of fraud,& Deputy Superintendent of Police Kaushal Budhathoki, who heads the police circle at Singha Durbar, said.

Budhathoki said police had rounded up Niraula after he sought security by dialling 100. The Education Consultancy Association Nepal, the umbrella body of education consultancies in Nepal, has scrapped the membership of Niraulafirm.

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Kathmandu, August 11

Police baton charged agitators who were protesting today against Federal Public Service Commissiondecision to recruit over 9,000 employees for local governments without fully complying with the reservation policy.

Save Reservation Campaign, an alliance of organisations including Tarai Madhes National Council and Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities, which has been agitating against the FPSCdecision to recruit employees at local levels had organised the protest. As many as 19 p r o t e s t e r s , i n c l u d i n g vice-president of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities Govinda Chhantyal, member of Tarai Madhes National Council Kashindra Yadav, chairperson of Dalit NGO Federation Bhakta Bishwakarma, and chairperson of Federal Democratic National Forum Kumar Lingden were arrested by the police from Bhadrakali. They were released in the evening.

Member of SRC Secretariat Ananda Gupta said the police baton charged agitators who were peacefully protesting against the FPSC and federal government for violating inclusion rules. Gupta said the protesters blocked the road when they were prevented by the police from heading towards Singhdurbar.

According to Gupta six people suffered minor injuries when police resorted to baton charge against the protesters. SRC will stage a sit-in at 12pm in front of the prime ministerofficial residence in Baluwatar on Tuesday.

According to Gupta, the protesters will also stage a sit-in in front of the residence of chief ministers and chiefs and deputy chiefs of local levels across the country on Tuesday.

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Kathmandu, August 11

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority arrested Umesh Mandal, a sub-engineer of Nagarain Municipality, red-handed while accepting bribe of Rs 55,000 from a service-seeker in Dhanusha today. CIAA Spokesperson Pradip Kumar Koirala said Mandal took the bribe for facilitating the service-seeker in receiving payment for completed projects.

On Thursday, the anti-graft body had arrested Giriraj Koirala, chief administrative officer of Purbanchal University. He was caught while receiving Rs 675,000 in bribe from a service-seeker in Kathmandu. The university official had sought the bribe to resolve the problems faced by the PU students.

According to statistics maintained by the CIAA, it arrested at least 41 persons with bribe during sting operations conducted at different places of the country over a period of less than one month of the current fiscal. The CIAA arrested 200 persons red-handed with the bribe money they received from service-seekers in fiscal 2018-19 compared to 154 in fiscal 2017-18. It is the highest number of arrests made by the anti-graft body in a year. The anti-graft body said one person was arrested with bribe on an average of 2.07 working days during the fiscal 2018-19.

Despite repeated warnings by the CIAA against the public post holders about its intensified sting operation, bribery continues unabated at government offices.

A report published by the CIAA recently stated that it mobilised its employees in corruption-prone public offices, posing as service-seekers for integrity test of the concerned officials. &Micro-surveillance and rapid action procedures were implemented to swing into action against government employees involved in irregularities and corruption. It is expected to improve the public service delivery system by controlling corrupt tendency of officials,& said Spokesperson Koirala.

The anti-graft body said it had also strengthened its information analysis unit to pursue reform, transparency and good governance in the public service sector.

A survey conducted by the CIAA on ‘Status of Corruption and Good Governance in Nepal-2019& has categorically identified fourteen public offices, which are most corruption-sensitive and where services are denied without bribe.

The top fourteen government offices prone to corruption include and revenue office, survey office, inland revenue office, municipality/rural municipality office, water supply office, district administration office, district education office, transport management office, district police office, district agriculture development office, Nepal Telecom, land reform office, cottage and small industries office and road division office.

The 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International on January 29 warned that continued failure of most countries, including Nepal, to curb corruption was contributing to crisis of democracy around the world.

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