Kathmandu. The chief of the Vehicle Testing Office, Itahari, and an accountant involved in irregularities have been removed from their responsibilities.

The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport on Sunday relieved Chief Mechanical Engineer Roshan Kumar Dev and accountant Chandra Bahadur Basnet from their duties following complaints of bribery, bargaining and harassing service seekers. Office chief Dev and accountant Basnet are suspected to have embezzled revenue in collusion.

The office is responsible for issuing route permits, maintaining the standard of vehicles, passing inspections, and conducting pollution tests for two or more provincial public vehicles.

Kulman Ghising, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Physical Infrastructure and Transport and Urban Development with evidences of irregularities in collusion between office chief and accountant was received from service seekers. After this, Minister Ghising immediately removed both of them from their responsibilities and ordered the formation of an investigation committee.

Minister Ghising had formed a 5-member committee led by Balram Rijyal, chief of administration division at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, to investigate into the irregularities taking place at the office chief, accountants and other officials.

The committee has been given 10 working days to submit its report. The committee has been given the mandate to take statements from the accused and other employees, to understand from the service seekers, ÷to study the documents of the decisions taken and to recommend action against them.