? 
Nepal’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), has written to at least 29 powerful people in the country ordering them appear in front of the constitutional body within seven days. CIAA has simultaneously asked all banks to freeze their lockers by today, December 7.
The list includes prominent personalities from ex-ministers to already-rich business people who dobbed into politics to make money rather than serve the teeming (needy) millions to a journalist renown for his contribution to the development of media in the South Asian region.
Whether investigations against these mighty corruption listers will have teeth or not (because CIAA itself has had fingers pointed at it in the past), today’s report by Kantipur Daily is likely to generate high expectations among the Nepalese people who often say with a sigh, “If only we did not have these politicians and corruption!”
The fact that the list contains the names of 12 former government ministers, and even three current ministerial secretaries, is a proof of just how completely the culture of corruption has sipped into the very fabric of the impoverished nation.
This murky development also raises question whether or not the funds for the earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction will be duly and democratically spent. There have been reports in the vernacular media, already, about relief being distributed to pseudo disaster victims. It is also suspected that there may have been irregularities in procuring astronomically-priced relief materials (for possible kickbacks) and life-saving medicines.
Citing their anonymous source, senior Kantipur journalist Balaram Baniya and journalist Gokarna Awasthi have revealed that CIAA boss Lokman Singh Karki summoned the CEOs of all banks operating in the Himalayan nation on Friday and ordered them to seize lockers of all named in the list.
The report further adds that the Chief Commissioner of the constitutional watchdog took up the matter with the governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, the apex bank in the country.
The CIAA has in the past investigated a number of high profile subjects and has had some success in sending them to jail. However, many in Nepal believe that the powerful body has done too little of what it could actually achieve in order to save the nation from the scourge of corruption.
Many more are being investigated for a variety of suspected corruption cases, the report added.
List courtesy Kantipur Dainik:
Vidhyadhar Mallik, ex minister
Ram Kumar Shrestha, ex-minister
Chhabiraj Pant, ex-minister
Shankar Koirala, ex-minister
Umakanta Jha, ex-minister
Tek Bahadur Thapa Gharti, ex-minister
Krishna Bahadur Mahara, ex-minister
Bhojraj Ghimire, ex-chief secretary and ex-ambassador
Lhyrkal Lama, ex-minister
Rabindra Pratap Shah, ex Inspector General of Nepal Police
Banshidhar Mishra, ex-minister
Surendra Pandey, ex-minister
Rajendra Pandey, ex-minister
Ichharaj Tamang, Member of Parliament and busissman
Janardhan Dhakal, Member of Parliament
Umesh Shrestha, Member of Parliament and busissman
Raj Kumar Agrawal, businessman
Bikram Pandey, Member of Parliament and busissman
Gita Rana, Member of Parliament and owner of private schools
Baburam Pokharel, Member of Parliament and owner of private schools
Kanak Mani Dixit, chairman of Sajha Yatayat (public transport company) and publisher of Himal Media
Nilam KC Khadka, ex-minister
Bijaylal Kayastha, Deputy Inspector General of Police
Rajendra Singh Bhandari, Assistant Inspector General of Police
Uttam Kumar Bhattarai, secretary at Ministry of Health
Anup Kumar Upadhyaya, secretary at Ministry for Irrigation
Gopal Bahadur Khadka, executive director, Nepal Oil Corporation
Bijay Paudel, ex-MP from Communist Party of Nepal (UML)