King's kin feel the backlash in Nepal

South Asia News

King's kin feel the backlash in Nepal

Kathmandu, May 30 (IANS) After Nepal's parliament clipped the powers of King Gyanendra and axed his legal immunity, it is now the turn of his royal relatives to feel the lash of public anger.

At least five people related to the king by marriage have had their land in eastern Nepal captured by irate local people who began distributing it among shanty dwellers, a private television channel reported Tuesday.

From Saturday, locals in Khanal and Itahari towns in Sunsari district in eastern Nepal began forcing their way into the property of the king's two brothers-in-law and three more relatives, asking landless shanty dwellers to come and build their homes on over 100 bighas of land, Nepal1 channel reported.

Suraj Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana and Uday Shumsher had their land occupied by the landless people who promptly began building on the encroached plot. Three other royal relatives, Padma Shah, Ravi Vikram Shah and Krishna Vikram Shah faced the same fate.

A resort in Itahari belonging to the queen's family - the Royal Resort - has also been forcibly occupied by locals, the channel said.

The public anger against the king and his relatives was fuelled by 15 months of direct rule by Gyanendra after he seized power with the help of the army in February 2005 and began distributing ministries, key posts in the government and assignments among his supporters and relatives.

The king's sisters, their husbands and sons are among defaulters who were blacklisted for not repaying bank loans. The state-run Nepal Telecom's mobile services were disrupted for months to give an advantage to a debutant private mobile phone company headed by his son-in-law, according to telecom unions.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat told parliament how the state treasury was ransacked by the king to finance the trips abroad of his son, controversial Crown Prince Paras, and his wife, Crown Princess Himani.

During the king's absolute rule, royal ministers have been accused of trying to hand over national park land to people close to them. An aunt of the king, who was paid millions for medical treatment out of the state treasury, had no action taken against her though a special commission formed by the king imprisoned former ministers on the charge they had distributed state money among their followers.

The aunt, Princess Helen Shah, her daughter Ketaki Chester and grandson Kapil Rana left Nepal last week, reportedly for Europe.

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King's kin feel the backlash in Nepal