Kathmandu, April 15

Bibeksheel Sajha Party today staged a demonstration in front of the prime minister’s official residence at Baluwatar protesting the government’s involvement in the illegal grab of the government owned land of Lalita Niwas.

BSP leaders shouted slogans and displayed placards that demanded the arrest of ‘big fish’ involved in the land grab. Many protesters displayed placards that read, ‘Beware, those who can sell Baluwatar also may sell Singha Durbar.’

BSP Spokesperson Surya Raj Acharya said, “We have launched today’s protest after the government’s involvements into serious kinds of graft came to the fore of late.” He added, “Issuing a Cabinet decision with the interest of the land mafia in mind, that too, for the benefit of the ruling minister is simply outrageous.”

A committee formed by the government to study cases of land grab recently concluded that a decision taken by the Cabinet led by the then prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on 4 May 2010 had facilitated transfer of public land, including 113.3 ropani in Baluwatar, in the names of individuals.

A probe committee led by Sharad Prasad Trital had said that the land mafia in collusion with officials of Land Revenue Office, Dillibazar, had transferred ownership of the 103.3 ropani land belonging to the government to individuals between 1991 and 2017.

The Cabinet came up with a decision that was proposed by the then Ministry of Land Reforms and Management. The then, CPN-ML leader Dambar Shrestha had led the ministry at that time.