Kathmandu: It has been revealed that the government has doled out Rs 9 million for the treatment of CPN (Unified Socialist) senior leader Jhalanath Khanal breaching existing provisions that bar providing expenses for treatment abroad.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Ministry of Finance had released Rs 8.95 million for the treatment of the former prime minister. It has been revealed that Rs 3 million was doled out in fiscal year 2020/21 and Rs 5.85 million in the fiscal year 2021/22, Himal Khabar reported.
“Rs 3 million was doled out in the fiscal year 2020/21 and Rs 5.85 million in the fiscal year 2021/22 was sent to the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi after the amount was released by the Finance Ministry as per the decision of the government to bear treatment expenses of former prime minister Jhalanath Khanal,” reads a reply by Foreign Ministry following information sought by Sagar Joshi.
The ministry has not mentioned anything about the remaining amount of Rs 816,047.
The amount was released illegally as Section 30 of the ‘Public Health Service Act 2018 states that expenses should not be provided for foreign treatment.
“Notwithstanding anything contained in the prevailing law, if any person is to be treated in a foreign country, the expenses to be spent on this shall not be made available by the Government of Nepal,” states Section 30 of the Act.
The erstwhile KP Sharma Oli-led government had decided to bear the treatment expenses of the former prime minister.
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