Dang, August 15:

Dang District Land Reform Office (DLRO) is to distribute land to 113 Kamaiya families by mid-January.

As per DLRO record of 2002, out of 260 households of freed Kamaiyas, 113 families are yet to get land from the government.

DLRO has been doing spadework for the distribution of land after Freed Kamaiya Resettlement Committee (FKRC) directed it to distribute land to Kamaiyas.

“We will soon call a meeting of FKRC, collect details of unoccupied public land in the district and distribute it to Kamaiyas,” Rajendra Prasad Poudel, an officer at DLRO, said, adding that land could not be distributed to Kamaiyas on time because of political instability.

There are 1426 families of freed Kamaiyas in the district.

DLRO has issued identification cards of different colours to the freed Kamaiyas: Red for Kamaiyas with no land, blue for Kamaiyas, who have built houses in public land, yellow for Kamaiyas, who have two kattha of land and white for Kamaiyas, who have over two kattha of land. Land will be distributed to only those Kamaiyas who possess red and blue identification cards, according to DLRO.

DLRO has distributed 62 bigha of land to free Kamaiyas. Of 705 Kamaiyas having red and blue identification cards, DLRO has distributed land to 592 Kamaiyas. The Kamaiyas, who get land from the state, cannot sell it for 10 years, the DLRO said.