hindoo: give some money to "Vishnu Avtar" cannot pay bills
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KATHMANDU: On the verge of being unseated from the throne from where his
forefathers ruled Nepal for over two centuries, Nepal's cornered King
Gyanendra has received another rude shock - from his utility bills.
The royal family, which has been asked by the former Maoist guerrillas to
quit the royal palace in three weeks' time, owes the state nearly NRS 75
million (over $1 million) over their electricity, water and phone bills, a
report said.
The Narayanhity royal palace - that is likely to be turned into a museum
once the Maoists form the government - owes the Nepal Electricity Authority
(NEA) over NRS 47 million for power bills.
Last month alone, the palace ran up a power bill of over NRS 1 million
though the king and his queen Komal spent long periods in their summer
resort in Nagarjuna forest on the outskirts of Kathmandu valley, the Naya
Patrika daily reported Sunday.
Citing unnamed sources in the NEA, the tabloid said the palace stopped
paying its electricity dues in 2005, the year the king seized absolute power
with the help of the army and triggered a national uprising that led to the
downfall of the royal family the following year.
Despite the king keeping a studied silence on the developments following a
historic election last month that gave victory to his bête noir, the
Maoists, the phones in the palace have been busy, especially the king's
mobile telephone.
According to sources in Nepal Telecom, the state-run telephone agency, the
king owes it over NRS 10 million while his mobile phone bill alone accounts
for more than NRS 1 million.
Though Nepal has till last month been reeling under an acute power crunch
that forced the NEA to impose a weekly 42-hour power outage in the country
and led to the closure of dozens of industries, the royal family, despite
defaulting on their utility bills, receive uninterrupted power supplies.
The NEA runs a substation with 11 employees inside the palace to ensure
round-the-clock supply.
Though the state agencies sent letters to the palace repeatedly asking for
payment, the letters were stonily ignored, the daily said.
Besides the royal palace in Kathmandu, the dynasty has also not paid utility
bills run up by three more palaces in Hetauda, Pokhara and Nagarjuna, the
report added.
Living under the palace's patronage, other relatives have also disdained to
pay their power bills, it added.
They include the king's sister Princess Shobha, whose husband was earlier
blacklisted for not paying back bank loans, and two of his nieces, Princess
Dilasha and Sitashma.
Earlier this year, an investigation found that the king's son, Crown Prince
Paras, had misappropriated funds from a nature fund and carted away vehicles
and a computer owned by it to his own residence for personal use.
Though Nepal's parliament proclaimed the country a republic last year and
said prior to that that the royal family no longer enjoyed any legal
immunity, the government has yet not been able to make the obdurate royals
pay tax or their bills.
Nor has it been able to revive any of the alleged cases of murder and
manslaughter involving members of the royal family and their associates.
The drooping fortune of Nepal's Shah dynasty of kings is expected to get the
death blow this month when the newly elected constituent assembly holds its
first meeting and formally abolishes monarchy.
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