Kavre, May 22

Locals of Bhumlutar and Phalate at Bhumlu Rural Municipality don’t have land ownership certificates, although they have been living there for the past four decades.

The residents are seeking necessary support from the newly elected representatives of Kavre, hoping that the new local body will ensure that they get their certificates.

The 2015 earthquakes had displaced thousands of people in Kavre.

The government had announced it would grant reconstruction funds to those whose homes were damaged during the quake, but many of the victims did not receive the fund because they did not have ownership certificates for their land.

Although the government then adjusted its policy to ensure that victims without certificates could be eligible for the grant in March, the victims now have not been able to build their homes despite having received the grant without the certificates.

For the last two years, the victims have been waiting to receive ownership certificates and the reconstruction grant. With a new local body elected in the May 14 civic polls, many victims have expressed hope that the newly elected body will ensure that they receive their certificates at the earliest.

Moti Lal Lama of Bhumlu Rural Municipality, Bhumlutar, said that his family does not have a certificate due to territory disputes.

“We have been reduced to the status of landless squatters for want of land ownership certificates. Victims in other places have already received the second instalment of the relief amount and are rebuilding their houses. However, we have not been able to build our houses. We hope the newly-elected representatives will take necessary initiatives to resolve this,” said Lama.

Mohan Upreti of Bhumlu, Phalate also has similar expectations. “We have been without land ownership certificates for the last 42 years. The elected members had promised during their campaign that they would solve this problem, and now we hope they keep their word,” he said.

Chief of Bhumlu Rural Municipality Gumandhwaj Kunwar pledged that he would make this issue his topmost priority.

“I will fight to ensure that the people receive all state-granted facilities,” he said. The residents of the area have been without documents due to disputes over arable land of then Pipaltar during a land survey conducted in 1975.

Although they have demanded that the concerned authority rectify the situation and grant them the certificates several times since, the authority has failed to do so citing technical problems.

More than 600 locals have dropped proposals seeking land ownership certificates at the District Land Revenue  Office Kavre so far.