SC orders govt, army HQ to make Welfare Fund transparent

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the government and the Nepali Army (NA) headquarters to make transparent the use of the Army Welfare Fund.

A division bench of justices Min Bahadur Rayamajhi and Damodar Prasad Sharma made the ruling, asking the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the NA headquarters to maintain transparency in the use of the welfare fund set up with the money deducted from the salary of NA troops working in UN’s peacekeeping missions abroad.

The bench also ordered the army headquarters to maintain standard auditing and disclose the details of the Fund.

A group of ex-army servicemen had filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court four years ago. In their writ, they accused the army headquarters of not providing salary to Nepali UN peacekeepers as per the agreement between the Nepal government the UN.

Yesterday, demanding timely hearing on the case, dozens of ex-army personnel staged demonstration and locked the main gate of the Supreme Court. The protest had disrupted proceedings in the apex court for some time.