Pocketless trousers to curb corruption at Nepal airport

Staff at Nepal's main international airport are to be issued with trousers without pockets, in an attempt to wipe out rampant bribe-taking.

The country's anti-corruption body said there had been growing complaints about staff at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan airport.

A spokesman said trousers without pockets would help the authorities "curb the irregularities".



The move comes after the prime minister of Nepal said corruption was damaging the airport's reputation.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) said it had sent a team to the airport to "observe the growing complaints about the behaviour of airport authorities and workers towards travellers".

"We discovered that the reports were true," spokesman Ishwori Prasad Paudyal said. "So we decided that airport officials should be given trousers with no pockets."