Govt not to pay for Jha’s India ‘pilgrimage’

The government has said it will not bear the expenses of Vice President Parmananda Jha’s “pilgrimage” to India.

Jha is leaving on a private pilgrimage trip to India from Friday. However, it is not clear which holy places in India will he visit during the trip.

A cabinet meeting held in Singha Durbar, the seat of the government, Wednesday morning decided not to bear the expenses of VP Jha’s trip to India after concluding that it was a “private visit”.

Informing the media-persons about the cabinet’s decision after the meeting, Minister for Tourism Sharad Singh Bhandari said that the government will however bear the expenses of VP Jha’s security guards and aides who will accompany him during the trip.

Jha was recently reappointed to the vice-presidential post which had remained defunct for almost six months after he refused to take oath of office and secrecy in Nepali as ordered by the Supreme Court.

The meeting also decided to give more facilities to all the non-gazetted government employees.

Likewise, the meeting also endorsed the directive for the establishment of a fund to felicitate senior journalists, fund for the welfare of war-victimized journalists and information technology act 2066. nepalnews.com