The government on Thursday formed a probe committee to search and assess land and other property in Kathmandu Valley registered in the name of Tribhuvan University.

A Cabinet meeting on Thursday formed the committee led by former government secretary Sharada Prasad Trital in which former joint secretaries Mahendra Kumar Thapa and Janaki Ballav Adhikari, and the varsity’s professor Dr Prem Sagar Chapagan are members, said Minister for Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma, who is also the government’s spokesperson.

A joint secretary of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology will be the member secretary of the committee.

In the first phase of the probe, the committee will study and investigate various plots of land owned by the varsity within the Kathmandu Valley. The team will prepare a report with details about the latest status of the university’s land and other properties, recommend ways to protect and make maximum use of the property and submit the document to the government.

Trital is also the head of the Lalita Niwas land grab probe committee whose investigation had exposed how the land adjoining the prime minister’s residence and central bank office had been transferred in the name of individuals in collusion with top politicians, bureaucrats and middlemen.

The Special Court in February convicted over 100 individuals, including former government secretaries, in the scam. The court however acquitted the political leaders involved in making the decisions.

The Special Court also ordered the confiscation of land from 65 individuals.