TOURISMS MINISTE, TIA BLAMED BY PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE FOR PASSPORT FIASCO

PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE BLAMES TOURISM MINISTER BISTA AND TIA FOR PASSPORT FIASCO
Kathmandu, 13 March: : Members of the State Affairs Committee of the Legislature Parliament have called for taking action against Minister for Tourism, Lokendra Bistamagar for 'denting' the country's prestige. RSS reports.
Speaking in the meeting of the SAC on Tuesday, they said the Minister for Tourism who is also the coordinator of the Tribhuvan International Airport Security Committee, travelling abroad without a visa is a serious and shameful incident.
Minister Bistamagar was detained by the immigration at the Abu Dhabi airport of the United Arab Emirates on March 5 while he was en route to Germany without carrying a visa.
SAC invited the Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Deputy Superintendent of Police on duty at airport and the Chief of the Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) today to acquire information regarding minister Bistamagar's detention by the UAE immigration.
The government has already constituted a committee before this to investigate into the minister travelling without visa.
A majority of the committee members at the meeting also discussed on what measures could be taken to stop the repetition of such incidents.
The immigration officials have defaulted from their duty in haste to clear the minister's travel documents as he had arrived late at airport, the committee members commented.
The Home Ministry officials had admitted in the meeting that there had been some mistakes by the immigration officials at the TIA in the last minute rush as the minister arrived late and could miss his flight.

Accepting human error in the incident due to lack of sufficient time for the checking, DIG Narayan Prasad Bastakoti however claimed that the security mechanism of the airport was not as weak as rumoured outside.

He also said that such incidents may repeat in the future if a fixed criteria is not set regarding to the privileges enjoyed by VIPs at the airport.

As per international civil aviation standards, only President, Vice-president, Prime Minister, Chief Justice and the Speaker enjoy VIP treatment at the airport.

However, in Nepal, high-ranking government officials, CA members and even their spouses are found benefiting of such privileges.

Director General of the Department of Immigration, Sudhir Shaha said the incident took place due to human error by the staff on duty at the airport.

'The incident was not intentional but happened due to shortcomings, and I take responsibility for it', he said.

At the meeting, the Committee members demanded formation of a probe committee to investigate into the incident.
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KKWP AGREES TO SURRENDER WEAPONS

Kathmandu, 13 March: Following talks Tuesday, government and Kirat Janabadi Workers Party (KJWP), it, have signed a five-point agreement in the capital.
Government agreed to withdraw the cases against KJWP cadres
while the party active mainly in the eastern hills will hand over all the weapons to the government in the next round of talks.

The party agreed to accept the peace process and constituent assembly.

Peace and Reconstruction Minister Satya Pahadi and rebel team leader
Suman Bantaba participated in the talks.
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