Knockning the door of SC Kathmandu, July 21- Nepal Government Employees' Organisation (NGEO) is preparing to file a case in the Supreme Court challenging the recent amendment to the Civil Service Act of 2049 BS that has banned employees' unions."We will file a petition in the Supreme Court soon," general-secretary of the NGEO, said Bhola Pokhrel, the himalaya times reports.According to him, senior advocate Shree Hari Aryal, advocates Subash Chandra Nembang, Hari Prasad Uprety, Chandeshwor Shrestha, Hari Krishna Karki, Bhimarjun Acharya, Tikaram Bhattarai and Ramesh Badal suggested them to move the Supreme Court to restore their right to form unions.The lawyers said the ordinance was issued against the spirit of the 1990 Constitution and several international rights laws. No corruption in Melamchi: ADB says in Reports Kathmandu, July 21- Investigation conducted by the Asian Development Bank has concluded that there was no evidence of irregularities and corruption in the contract awarding process of Melamchi Water Supply Project, according to reports. “Based on the assessment of the documents in its possession and the interviews carried out, OAGI (Integrity Division Investigation of the Office of the Auditor General) has not found or received any evidence of collusion or other corrupt or fraudulent practice among those involved in the bidding process for the MDS/ AAR/ 02 contract (Contract of the access road),” leading newspapers on Thursday quoted the internal ADB report – that has already been submitted to the Nepal government-- as saying. The Manila-based Bank had dispatched a mission to Nepal from May 29 to June 2 this year weeks after a controversial anti-corruption watchdog in Nepal arrested former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, former minister Prakash Man Singh and other officials on charge of their involvement in alleged corruption while awarding the contract. The mission, in its report, said that the award of the contract was in accordance with ADB’s guidelines for procurement and the loan documents. The OAGI also considered the relevance of the engineer’s estimation in the context of the procurement process leading to the contract in question and did not find any type of irregularity to indicate that the particular component was in any violation of ADB’s anti-corruption policy, reports said. Officials at the Nepal Resident Mission of the ADB in Kathmandu said they were not in a position to comment on the issue. They said they would forward queries, if any, to the ADB headquarters in Manila. ADB is one of the major financiers and coordinator of the multi-million dollar project. The Manila-based Bank had okayed US$ 120 million loan for the biggest drinking water project in the country in December 2000. Upon its completion, the project aims to initially pipe in 170 million litres of water every day into the capital valley from the snow-fed Melamchi River in Sindhupalchowk district to the northeast of Kathmandu. The latest `revelation’ has come only days ahead of the scheduled verdict by the controversial Royal Commission on Corruption Control (RCCC) against six defendants including former premier and Nepali Congress (Democratic) president Deuba. The Commission had arrested Deuba and Singh some three months ago and is still keeping them in its custody after they challenged its legal and constitutional status and refused to post bail demanded by it. had approved the contract. The duo are still being held on the charge. The report has come out at a time when the royal anti-graft panel is preparing to finalize the case and has scheduled Friday for hearing.

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