Kathmandu, May 17
Nepal Army Officers’ Wives Association has issued a press release after its charity show ‘meant to raise funds for earthquake victims’ courted controversy.
The association had invited Bollywood divas Sonakshi Sinha and Malaika Arora for the show, stating that it was meant to raise funds for the quake victims.
It may be noted that not only the association, but also the national army came under criticism for organising the show at its parade ground, that is considered inviolable.
The army courted controversy also for ‘sending’ a brigadier-general to the Tribhuvan International Airport to receive Sinha and for mobilising its personnel for security and other purposes during the party.
In its press release, the association has thanked all for the show.
Interestingly, there’s no mention of earthquake victims in the press release. Nowhere does the association mention that it will give away funds raised through the show to the victims.
The second point of the press release mentions that the aim is to provide proceeds from the event to families of in-service and retired Nepal Army personnel and contribute to social causes. The association noted that its officials had reached different parts of the country and provided relief to victims of disasters like quake.
The third point claims the show has contributed to women’s empowerment. In the end, the press release states that the association expects cooperation and constructive suggestions from citizens to the media to make programmes like these successful.
At a press conference organised to inform the media and the public about the show, an army official had said the main focus of the programme is on providing relief to the quake victims.
Onlinekhabar called up the association’s office to know why the release made no mention of the quake victims.
Navaraj Ghimire, who identified himself as information officer, responded: We act in a transparent manner. And we will inform the public while spending the funds raised during the show.
Responding to another question, he said part of the funds can be donated for reconstruction of quake-ravaged structures like heritages and school buildings.
Notably, even after the end of the show, the association has not made its income and expenditure public. Ghimire said they are collecting the details. We will disseminate information after collecting the details, he said.
Asked how much they paid to bring in the Indian divas, Ghimire refused to divulge the amount.
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