Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah has warned CPN-UML Chairperson KP Sharma Oli not to cover up the Rs 100 billion Giribandhu Tea Estate land scam.
Shah made the accusation after the Department of Roads intervened into the plan of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) to widen the pavement on New Road streets. KMC is widening the pavements on both sides of the New Road Gate-Juddha Shalik road.
The Department of Roads, a federal agency under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, blacktopped the one-meter strip of the New Road Gate-Juddha Shalik dug by the KMC for pavement expansion works on Monday.
CPN-UML leader Raghubir Mahaseth is at the helm of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport.
“May you use your power to build Ring Road and Chitwan-Butwal road. We are with you,” Shah wrote in his social media post. “Also, return the money paid as advance by the Giribandhu victims. Otherwise, someone will come and investigate the matter. It may not matter, as you spent time in prison earlier also.”
The government led by KP Sharma Oli allowed Giribandhu Tea Estate to swap its valuable land by providing land of similar measurements in a different area. The estate was planned to convert the tea estate land, which lies along the East-West Highway and commands high prices, into land plots, by swapping it with cheaper land in some remote areas.
The Supreme Court has quashed the government decision.
