Nepali parliamentary panel seeks king's property details

The Public Account Committee of the Nepali House of Representatives Thursday directed the government to submit property details of King Gyanendra and the members of the royal family to the committee, the Himalayan Times website reported.

According to its chairman Chitra Bahadur KC, the committee directed the office of Prime Minister Girija Rasa Koirala and Cabinet and the Ministry of Finance to produce the details of the property of the king and the royal family within 15 days.

The committee also asked all the ministries to produce the details of the amount spent by the government beyond the annual budget allocations during the royal regime within seven days.

The members of the committee urged chairman KC to begin probe into the king's property issue if the government was not ready to send the details.

The committee members said that it should make public the property details after it gets them from the authorities.

This is the first time that a parliamentary committee has sought property details of the royal family in order to make them public.

Source: Xinhua