Beneficiaries butcher goats and pigs they received as part of the grant-in-aid program as authorities look away.
Aas Gurung: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
In the fiscal year 2018/19, the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Co-operative, Gandaki Province, released Rs 1 million in grant-in-aid for goat rearing to Lipey Bahumukhi Krishi Private Limited, a firm owned by Buddhi Ram Gurung, a resident of Dordi Rural Municipality-3, Lamjung. Gurung is a former Constituent Assembly member who was elected on the then CPN (Maoist) ticket from the district’s electoral region-1 during the 2008 elections.
Buddhi Ram Gurung
The grant-in-aid, aimed at supporting poor farmers, is made available upon submission of an application at the relevant district’s Veterinary Hospital and Livestock Service Expert Centre. The centre evaluates the application and forwards it to the ministry, which then releases the grant after final approval. Gurung’s firm, however, received the grant-in-aid directly from the ministry without having to submit the application through the centre. What’s more, Gurung failed to spend the grant-in-aid on its stated purpose.
“It’s true that I received the grant-in-aid to start goat rearing. But I spent it on vegetable and fish farming and local poultry rearing,” Gurung told CIJ Nepal.
The ministry in the same fiscal year released a grant-in-aid of Rs 2.5 lakh to Jasmi Pasupakshi Firm for poultry farming. The firm is owned by Jasmi Gurung, a resident of the Kwhlosothar Rural Municipality-1 in Lamjung and the wife of the ward chairperson. Jasmi does not live in the locality, and in her absence, the firm, which has around 150 poultry, is taken care of by Sirendra Gurung, her husband’s brother.
The ministry in the same fiscal year released a grant of Rs 2.5 lakh to Namuna Krishi Firm. The firm, located in Besishahar Municipality, is owned by Govinda Basnet, the chairperson of the municipality -7. “I have no idea how I spent the grant-in-aid I received last year. But I’ve rented out the poultry firm this year,” Basnet told CIJ Nepal.
The ministry in the same fiscal year released a grant of Rs 5 lakh in the name of Gahate Organic Mauri Firm. The firm is owned by Lalit Gurung, the chairperson of Sundarbazar Municipality-5. “We received the grant-in-aid because of our excellent work in beekeeping. No one has a reason to be unhappy about it,” Gurung told CIJ Nepal.
The provincial ministry is not the only institution to have provided grants-in-aid to those with political access. In Lamjung, local levels have been equally generous in providing such grants-in-aid.
The Madhya-Nepal Municipality on June 5, 2019 announced the Mayoral Youth Self-employment Scheme aimed at providing grants-in-aid to entrepreneurs–individuals and institutions both–within the municipality.
Accordingly, it released a grant-in-aid of Rs 1.2 lakh to Ramsa Furniture Udyog, which is owned by the family of Raj Kumar Shrestha, the municipality’s deputy mayor. The firm was previously operated by Raj Kumar himself. But after he was elected, he handed it over to his son Sanjeev. “I wrote and submitted the grant application myself. And we received the grant-in-aid after it was approved. The grant-in-aid has been put to good use towards operation of the firm” Shrestha told CIJ Nepal.
According to Nar Bahadur Khadka, administrative officer at the municipality, the grant-in-aid was released on the basis of a recommendation made by a committee headed by the municipality’s mayor. “People’s representatives fight to usurp the grants-in-aid themselves. We have to release the grants-in-aid once the decision is made,” Khadka told CIJ Nepal.
Political access
The provincial ministry in the year 2018/19 released a grant-in-aid of Rs 2.5 lakh for cow rearing to Khasur Byabasayik Krishak Samuha. The firm is owned by Ramesh Ghale, a resident of Besishahar Municipality-10, who is a former chairperson of the erstwhile Baanjkhet Village Development Committee. The firm has four cows and an ox.
Ramesh Ghale’s cow farm. Photo: Aas Gurung
The same year, the Besishahar Municipality released a grant-in-aid of Rs 2 lakh to Ghale’s Agro Products for purchasing a milking machine. Ghale’s brother, Mukta Bahadur, who looks after the cow firm, said they were yet to purchase the milking machine although the grant-in-aid had already been released. The provincial ministry also released Rs 1.81 lakh for agricultural mechanisation and greenhouse construction Ghale’s Shree Krishi Ban Tatha Berna Upaj Utpadan Udyog. The Besishahar Municipality also provided Ghale with two beehives, along with bees in the fiscal year 2018/19.
Unlike Ghale, who received four grants-in-aid in the same year, there are many farmers who are yet to receive a single grant-in-aid.
Ram Chandra Paudel, Nepal Communist Party’s coordinator for the Madhya-Nepal Municipality and a resident of Ward-6, received three grants-in-aid for his cooperative in the fiscal year 2018/19. Paudel’s Ekikrit Krishi Sahakari received Rs 2.86 lakh on July 12, 2019 from the Agricultural Knowledge Centre, Lamjung. The same cooperative received Rs 5.53 lakh for agricultural mechanisation and tunnel construction on July 15, 2019. When asked what he did with the grant-in-aid, Paudel said he had constructed two tunnels and started vegetable farming. Paudel also received Rs 1.3 lakh from the municipality’s Youth Self-Employment Program for poultry farming.
The Ragini Krishi Firm received Rs 1.27 lakh from the Agricultural Development Directorate of the ministry for an irrigation project. The firm is owned by Purna Bahadur Gurung, a resident of Rainas Municipality-9 and the town secretary of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). Gurung’s Kudule Samudayik Homestay also received Rs 1 million from the Gandaki Province government in the fiscal year 2018/19. But the homestay is yet to come into operation. Prakash Bastakoti, an agricultural publicity officer at the ministry, said he was not aware whether the homestay had come into operation.
The ministry in the fiscal year 2018/19 released a grant-in-aid of Rs 2.5 lakh to Kudule Chalise Multi Agro Firm for lemon farming. The firm is owned by Sunil Kumar Sunar, a resident of Sundarbazar Municipality-1, and the town secretary of the NCP. Sunar claims to have spent the money on lemon farming at Bakhrejagat-5 in Besishahar Municipality, but no lemon tree is visible in the said field. “There’s no lemon tree there. It’s just a jungle,” said Lal Bahadur Tamang, a local.
The list of people receiving grants-in-aid from the local or the state level just on the basis of political access or referral doesn’t end there. Some of them have received grants in the name of private firms that haven’t been renewed for years. Rabindra Adhikari, a resident of Dordi Rural Municipality-5, received a grant-in-aid of Rs 2.5 lakh in the fiscal year 2018/19 for goat farming. His firm was selected by the Gandaki Province’s Directorate of Livestock and Fisheries Development (DLFD). The firm was registered on June 10, 2011 at the Department of Cottage and Small Industries and hasn’t been renewed ever since. However, Man Bahadur Pun, head of the directorate, claimed the grant-in-aid was released upon submission of the renewal letter. Pun said that in case of misuse, the grant-in-aid would be seized or even stopped in coming days.
Gandaki Province’s Directorate of Livestock and Fisheries Development in the fiscal year 2018/19 released a grant-in-aid of Rs 2.5 lakh to Bharate Bahu-Uddeshyiya Krishi Udyog. The firm is owned by Saraswati Sunar, a resident of Dordi Rural Municipality-1. Saraswati’s husband, a former UML secretary of Bharate Village Development Committee, travelled abroad on the grant-in-aid money. On her part, Saraswati consumed the pig bought with the grant-in-aid. “There’s just chicken coop left now,” Saraswati said.
The provincial ministry in the fiscal year 2018/19 released a grant-in-aid of Rs 5.1 lakh to Chhinkhola Alaichi Nursery, owned by Ajay Tamang, a resident of Lamjung Marshyangdi Rural Municipality-6. Tamang is the district president of the Cardamom Entrepreneurs Federation and also the state coordinator of the Gandaki Province Cardamom Entrepreneurs Federation. Tamang claimed he had constructed nursery tunnels and expanded cultivation of cardamom in 10 ropanis of land with the grant-in-aid.
However, Simant Gurung, a resident of Besishahar Municipality-10, who has been cultivating cardamom in 19 acres of land, said he had failed to receive any grant-in-aid from anywhere because he was neither involved with any political party nor has any influence in the local and the state governments. He said the president, who was expected to work for the benefit of the farmers, was misusing his position by usurping the grant-in-aid himself. “Those with access took the grants-in-aid from the ministry. But no one asked about us,” Gurung lamented.
Goat bought with grant money butchered
The Rainas Municipality in the fiscal year 2018/19 allocated a budget of Rs 3 lakh to purchase 20 billy goats of high breed under the act of breed improvement program. Even though 32 farmers had applied for the grant, only those who owned eight to ten goats got selected through a recommendation from the ward office.
Before distributing them, the municipality had put forth the condition that the billy goats would have to be reared for a minimum of two years. However, even after accepting the municipality’s condition, Tulasi Gurung, Padam Bahadur Gurung and Kum Bahadur Gurung, residents of the Rainas Municipality-9, 4 and 1 respectively, butchered and consumed the billy goats on the day they received them.
Tulasi Gurung claimed he had butchered the billy goat because the municipality had betrayed him by providing him with a billy goat of local breed instead of a high-breed one. He further claimed he was now planning to buy a high-breed goat on his own.
Municipal authorities are aware of the farmers butchering the goats bought with the grant-in-aid. Shiva Babu Devkota, the head at the Agricultural Department at the municipality, said no public representatives or authorities had been involved in the incident. Devkota further said that those who misused the grant-in-aid would be ineligible to apply for the next one.
