[With two excerpts below from one of his articles, we post today a video-interview of a Nepalese fireband anti-corruption activist and also one of The Himalayan Voice's contributors, Kalyan Deva Bhattarai from Kathmandu. He spoke to Mero FM's Bikash Lakai Khadka couple of days ago. Lashing all the Nepalese leaders who, he thinks, have turned politics into their 'profession' and for the country's current mess, this frustrated fireband anti-corruption activist has termed the prime ministers 'fantoos' - useless person - and other ministers and leaders - fantoos', 'liars' etc. He has questioned the government paying for political leaders' millions rupees medical bills. In 2012, there was huge uproar in India also alleging Ms. Sonia Gandhi to have 'wasted' Rs 1,800 crore from the government coffer for her treatment in the United States but later the Chief Information Commissioner reported she had paid the bills by herself. Again today, The Times of India carries a news that Karnatak Government paid Rs. 1.16 crore for a minister's medical bills from a hospital in Singapore. The only question to ask would be how deeply concerned are the South Asian Governments about the health and wellness of the general people also ? - The Blogger]
Excerpts:
Excerpts:
"To solve the problems like: poverty, price-rise, oppression or
suppression, transparency, impunity, accountability etc, requires involvement
of the marginalized people in the decision making process. All have-not groups
must be given enough power and authority to decide their priorities or needs
and involvement in the decision making process which certainly will not be
approved by the present day corrupt so-called leaders of the country."
KARNATAKA MINISTER GETS TREATMENT ABROAD, GOVT DECIDES TO FOOT RS 1.16 CRORE MEDICAL BILL
"Finally,
to solve our present day problems what we require is strong will power,
political honesty, ideological clarity, dedication, minimum ethics, realistic
vision, good homework and the realization that the term democracy is to fulfill
the requirements of the people but not to fool them around. I consider it will
be an intellectual bankruptcy to trust the same corrupt leaders who have
cheated Nepalese people so many times by lying them and looting them and
federalism is their new tool to deceive Nepalese people again for few decades
so that they could loot the nation as they are doing in the name of interim
period."
[The 61-year-old actor turned politician was admitted to a hospital here on February 21 after he complained of breathlessness and was later shifted to Mount Elizabeth Singapore for further treatment. He returned here on April 11.]
The 61-year-old actor turned
politician was admitted to a hospital here on February 21 after he complained
of breathlessness and was later shifted to Mount
Elizabeth Singapore
for further treatment. He returned here on April 11.
According to a notification
issued by the Department of Personnel and Administration (protocol) on July 11,
government will reimburse the amount he paid for treatment at Mount
Elizabeth
As per the Medical Attendance
Rule of 1958, the maximum reimbursement normally is Rs 5 lakh, provided ministers
avail treatment within the country if facilities are available.
When asked about this, chief
minister Siddaramaiah, who also heads the finance department, told reporters
that "In special cases we can give. It is the discretion of the government."
Energy minister D K Shivakumar
said the government had arranged for his shifting to the Singapore
hospital and moreover Ambareesh is "an asset" to Karnataka apart from
being an actor.
"The government had arranged
for a special flight. He was a former Union minister and an actor. He is an
asset to Karnataka," Shivakumar said.
BJP leader and former chief
minister Jagadish Shettar said it was not new and earlier governments had also
taken such decisions. However, it was left to the government how much amount
should be reimbursed, he said.
"Government has taken a
decision. On other occasions also, the government has paid the amount. Whether
it is higher or lower - (it) is left to them," said Shettar, the
opposition leader in the Legislative Assembly.
[While tweeting from his Twitter
account, Swamy said, "Narendra Modified has disclosed that Rs 1880 crores
were spent by Sonia on her US
medical treatment. Who paid? PIL coming soon." Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi on Monday hurled few questions at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and Mrs Gandhi over UPA Government's "wasteful expenditure". ]
Posted by: Nairita
Posted by: Nairita
According to Swamy, a total of Rs
1,880 crore was spent by Sonia on her US
medical treatment and the Janata Party chief believes that Mrs Gandhi might be
sent a PIL soon.
While tweeting from his Twitter account, Swamy
said, "Narendra Modified has disclosed that Rs 1880 crores were spent by
Sonia on her US
medical treatment. Who paid? PIL coming soon." Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi on Monday hurled few questions at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and Mrs Gandhi over UPA Government's "wasteful expenditure".
Modi criticised the Centre for
questioning Gujarat govt for spending money on
festivities and celebrations and also claimed that Gujarat
should not be questioned on the same when the central government has itself
spent Rs 1,880 crore for Mrs Gandhi's foreign trips and "treatment abroad"
over three years.
Criticising Congress and Rahul
Gandhi, Swamy also added, "Congi rattled that Modi and I are speaking in
the same tenor about Tadakka. Soon Buddhu too under pincer attack. Munich
under siege."
Mrs Gandhi had gone abroad on
Sept 1 and returned only after one week. Congress spokesperson Janardan Dwivedi
had informed about her abroad visit but did not disclose the real reason
regarding her treatment. [Read: Mystery over Mrs Gandhi's treatment, goes
abroad again]
On Aug 2011, for the first time, Mrs
Gandhi had gone to US for surgery. Keeping all the mystery intact, her party
did not disclose the hospital's name or any other information regarding her
diagnosis. However, reports suggested that she was suffering from Cancer.
Mrs Gandhi went for second check
on Feb 27, 2012 when she
had faced protest in the country.
Sikh community in the US
- Sikh for Justice (SFJ) protested against the Congress president and demanded
her exclusion from the country.
Later, when Information and
Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni was asked if any government funds had been
spent on Gandhi's travel, hospitalisation and treatment and security, the
minister snubbed all questions saying that government would announce the
details later. However, no such detailed information regarding Mrs Gandhi's
check up has been made yet. OneIndia News
["From the submissions made
by the Respondents, it was quite clear that neither any reimbursement for any
such expenditure had been claimed by the individual concerned from these public
authorities nor any expenditure made in this regard. In other words, till now, the
government has incurred no expenditure in this regard," Mishra said in his
reply.]
By FP Staff
Even as Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi refuses to yield over allegations that public money to the tune
of Rs 1,880 crore was spent on Congress Sonia Gandhi's trips for medical
treatment abroad, the Chief Information Commissioner had earlier noted that the
government of India
had not spent any money on it.
CNN-IBN
reported that Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra had replied to a
Right to Information (RTI ) query by one
Naveen Kumar of Moradabad (Uttar
Pradesh) in May, in which the authority said that the Congress president had
paid for her medical treatment and no government funds were used.
"From the submissions made
by the Respondents, it was quite clear that neither any reimbursement for any
such expenditure had been claimed by the individual concerned from these public
authorities nor any expenditure made in this regard. In other words, till now, the
government has incurred no expenditure in this regard," Mishra said in his
reply.
The RTI
plea had sought the details of the expenditure on Gandhi's treatment last year. The petition was sent to the Prime Minister's
Office, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry
of Statistics and Programme Implementation, National Advisory Council and the
Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The CIC order came after hearing
the petitioner and government representatives and had dismissed the petition
stating that an individual's expenditure did not come under RTI .
The Gujarat Chief Minister has
quoted a newspaper report, that had claimed to be based on an RTI
application, in order to make his sensational claim. He had even offered to
apologise in the event that he was proven wrong.
While Congress spokespersons have
criticised Modi for his statements, the Gujarat Chief Minister has been backed
by his party. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has chosen to ignore the
statements so far, and made no comments on it barring a passing reference to it
in her rally in Rajkot today.
"There are many attacks that
have been made against us in the past. But we didn't consider them then and won't
consider them in future," Gandhi said at the rally, refusing to
acknowledge Modi's statements.
