PU DEAN ARRESTED BY CIAALFOR IRREGULARITIES

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PU DEAN ARRESTED BY CIAA FOR IRREGULARITIESuse
Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: (CIAA) Wednesday arrested, Ram Kumar Singh, dean of Medical Faculty of the Purbanchal
University (PU) and two others for misuse of authority
Television footage Thursday morning showed sacks
of answer papers recovered by Maoist students from Hotel Vision in the capital.
The students recovered the sacks with answer papers for the
entrance examinations for B.Sc Nursing and bachelor of pharmacy from rooms in the hotel.
The examinations were conducted this month.
Students of PU overpowered Singh with two representatives of private institutions from the hotel room as they were checking answer papers.
The PU has nullified the examination results after the
embarrassing exposure.
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CONTROVERSIESIN PSHUPATINATH SLOWING DOWN
Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: Transparency of monetary offerings in the Pashupatinath temple has always remained at the centre of attention, often stirring up controversy. But all that seems to be changing now as some signs of way-out are visible lately. After a committee formed last year in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling proposed, for the first time, to the Ministry of Culture that transparency can be maintained in Pashupatinath if the priests are given fixed salaries, the MoC has recently taken an initiative by forming another sub-committee to conduct a comprehensive study on this matter. With this, offerings made by devotees in the main temple of Pashupatinath, believed to be worth billions of rupees, could come within the purview of government authorities. Ankit Adhikari of The Kathmandu Post talked to stakeholders about possibilities and challenges of maintaining transparency of monetary offerings that, if tackled, could prove milestone for Pashupati’s development.
Ministry’s initiation a milestone
Himal Giri
Culture Minister’s
personal secretary
The issue about maintaining transparency in the Pashupati temple has always stirred up controversy. Where do you think the root of the problem lies?
Priests who have been handling religious activities in the main temple of Pashupatinath have been misusing monetary offerings made by devotees. Since there is no proper regulations, the state so far has been unable to bring the money to its coffer. So, the main debate is all about systematising the poorly-managed funds collected in Pashupatinath. However, the priests, considered the most powerful in handling temple management, have not been positive about this case, as enactment of a law to this effect would cut off their unspoken liberty to handle the money whichever way they like. While it is very necessary to maintain transparency, we should also take care of the religious sentiments associated with the temple.
This is where the main problem lies.
What step has the government taken recently to enact regulations to maintain transparency?

Talking about government’s initiation, we have formed a sub-committee to fix a model that aspires to put a system in place. One of the much talked about alternatives is to provide fixed salaries to the priests. However, nothing has been decided so far. The sub-committee formed under the Ministry of Culture is currently visiting various temples in India to study the trend followed there. Once the committee members return, a decision in connection with this matter will be taken.
How effective do you think is the alternative of providing fixed salaries?
A committee formed last year in pursuant of the Supreme Court ruling had first proposed the MoC to pay the priests fixed salaries. We overlooked the proposal and then decided to look at some other alternatives too. We may or we may not go for the fixed salary system, but we are quite confident that we will develop a model within couple of months.
MoC dragging its feet to swing into action
Srihari Aryal
Senior advocate and culture expert
(Member of the committee formed to fix problems faced by the Pashupati temple)
Why is it important to maintain transparency in Pashupatinath?
The Pashupatinath temple is among the few things in Nepal that stand out as the identity of the entire country. It is something associated with the religious sentiment of over one-and-a-half billion Hindus across the world. News about corruption and ill-management emanating from this pious Hindu shrine hurts the sentiments of all those people and eventually may make the temple itself a subject of disgrace and abhorrence. Therefore, if transparency is maintained, faiths of people will remain intact. Besides, it was okay for the priests to take away monetary offerings around a century ago as the amount of offerings was never too overwhelming back then. But time has changed now and what was worth just a few lakhs until a century ago is now counted in billions. The money has to be monitored, or else, the temple of trust will slowly move towards anarchism.
The committee of which you were also a member for the first time came with an alternative of the fixed salary system to Pashupati priests. On what grounds did the committee find salary system an appropriate solution?
Well, the proposal that we submitted five months ago was an outcome of our detailed research and study. We analysed the practices across the world and reached a conclusion that salary system would be the best to maintain transparency and keep the religious purity of the temple alive at the same time. We had also talked with priests of all four sections (Bhatta, Bhandari, Rairakami and Bishet) before taking the decision and even the priests had said they would abide by the system.
Although the committee’s proposal reached the ministry five months ago. no action has been taken yet. Why?
Exactly. The main problem is with the ministry itself. People there are unwilling to take any initiative to solve this problem. We had already reached an agreement on providing salary to priests. The proposal even has signatures of the priests. So, the only task remaining is to negotiate the salary amount. No need to form yet another committee. There is no other alternative to the fixed salary system. So, it’s better if we work for its implementation now.
Give us salary, take hold of offerings
Arun Shrestha
Bishet (Responsible for the management of all property belonging to the main temple)
How much monetary offerings is in the Pashupati temple’s possession? Who has been taking away all the money till the date?
No one knows how much is offered inside the main temple of Pashupati since not a single person other than Bhattas and Bhandaris are allowed to enter the main temple. As per the tradition older than 300 years, Bhattas and Bhandaris take all the offerings. Not even the other two sections of priests (Bishet and Rairakami) have any right to keep the money. The one thing that needs to clarified here is it was religiously decided that Bhattas and Bhandaris, who perform difficult puja inside the temple, will have all rights over offerings. There is no mistake on the part of priests if they take all the money. The widespread rumours that the priests have been embezzling billions of rupees are fake.
How all priests (including you) view the moves made towards maintaining transparency of monetary offerings at Pashupati?
It is a good thing indeed, and all of us are very positive about it. Even Bhattas and Bhandaris are against keeping guard over the monetary offerings. They want the responsibility to be handed over to someone else so that they could stay away from allegations. However, a meeting point needs to be in place. Considering the history of priests in Pashupati as long as 300 years, the state should offer us good money in lieu of the right to monitor monetary offerings. Our another condition is that the government cannot take the money of Pashupati and invest it in other places. What the government can do is it can invest the money in the development of Pashupati itself.
What according to you will be the benefits of making the offerings transparent?
If all the money offered by devotees to the main temple are used for a right cause, the faith upon the God will be intact among all the Hindus. This not only helps the temple prosper in spiritual manner, but will also help increase the amount of offerings gradually. The more money we have, more development in Pashupati is possible.
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