KATHMANDU: A team from the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has raided the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers in Province 2.

A joint team from the CIAA’s central office in Kathmandu and Bardibas office reached the Chief Minister’s Office on Wednesday afternoon.

According to sources, authorities are investigating a scheme through which the province government distributed bicycles to girls students of community schools in 2019. It is alleged that bicycles were distributed in eight districts of Province 2 without exacting the number of girl students.

The Auditor General’s Office, in its report, had also said it was not clear whether distributed bicycles reached the students or not.

A meeting chaired by Chief Minister Lal Babu Raut on July 1, 2019, had decided to distribute bicycles to girls studying in community schools in the province. Accordingly, the province government had purchased 14,000 bicycles by spending nearly Rs. 10 million.