Former Education Minister Ram Chandra Kushwaha, who was sacked after being investigated for selling relief teachers’ vacancies for up to Rs 300,000, and who almost got a $120 million education program scrapped, said he was innocent at the Reporters Club in Kathmandu Today. Nepalnews writes:

A day after being recalled from the cabinet over corruption charges, then education minister and leader of Terai Madhes Lokatantrik Party (TMLP), Ram Chandra Kushwaha, today cried foul against the party’s decision and denied any wrongdoing while in office.

Speaking at the Reporters Club, Kaushwaha said he did not go against the laws to take decisions and that the  party recalled him without asking him once over the charges against him.

The Finance Ministry has refused to reimburse the expenses incurred during Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala’s treatment in Singapore because his daughter, Foreign Minister Sujajta Koirala, failed to produce receipts. Nagarik writes:

The Foreign Ministry had sent an Rs 16 million invoice to the Finance Ministry four days for Koirala’s treatment cost in Singapore. However, the Finance Ministry refused to approve the fund saying it would be considered corruption to sanction funds without receipts.

It was reported that Foreign Minister Koirala splurged lavishly while accompanying her father to Singapore. She stayed in the presidential suite of one of the most expensive hotels in Singapore and rented a limousine to ferry her around, racking up an expense of Rs 100,00 daily.

And remember those Nepal Electricity Authority vehicles that were being used by political leaders for personal purposes? NEA employees had ‘seized’ one of such vehicles used by CPN-UML leader KP Oli. Apparently, Oli used the cover of the night and help of Nepal Police to ‘recover’ the vehicle. From the topsy-turvy land, the Kathmandu Post writes:

CPN-UML leader K.P. Oli’s act of ‘recapturing’ a government-owned vehicle has drawn flak from employees of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

The condemnation came after police on Tuesday took the four-wheeler under their control from the NEA premises and handed it back to the former home minister.

The NEA employees last week retrieved the Nissan car, which was at Oli’s disposal. The UML leader had blamed the Maoists for the seizure.