KATHMANDU, JULY 12
A high-level delegation of federal ministers visited the state-run holding centre in Kharipati, Bhaktapur, on Sunday in a rapid response to mounting public and political backlash, assuring displaced landless squatters that the government is actively working to issue permanent land ownership certificates (Lalpurja) as quickly as possible.
The ministerial deployment follows heavy criticism of the government after Saturday night's flash floods which swamped a transitional squatter camp in Kirtipur, displacing dozens of families.
A joint cabinet delegation including Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration Pratibha Rawal, Home Minister Sudan Gurung, Minister for Health Nisha Mehta, Minister for Education Sasmit Pokharel, Minister for Labour Ramji Yadav and Minister for Women Sita Badi reached Kharipati facility to observe the living conditions and talk directly with the affected families in a bid to resolve the crisis and calm the rising tensions on the streets.
Addressing the displaced squatters directly at the centre, Land Management Minister Pratibha Rawal assured them that the Government of Nepal is giving priority to their rehabilitation, especially those who are now sheltered in the state holding centres.
Rawal said the process of distribution of land ownership title is taking time as the government wants to do the task in a perfect manner so that the legal validity of the certificates remains ironclad for generations to come.
"It takes time to work in such a way that there is absolutely no room for legal questions or disputes," said Minister Rawal. "This is the reason why the government is taking its time. "But I can assure you that the government is working as fast as humanly possible for the squatters, and concrete administrative tasks have already begun right here in the holding centres."
Minister Rawal declined to give a firm deadline or a specific date on which the distribution would take place, but she reiterated that the end result – the legal handover of land titles – is guaranteed. She said the process is very complex and sensitive and demands that the state not only officially recognise the identity of true landless people but also find, survey and clear suitable plots of land which are not involved in overlapping legal disputes.
The ministerial visit and its accompanying promises are a strategic move by the federal cabinet to show administrative sensitivity, in direct opposition to the accusations from the protesting landless fronts that the state has left the displaced working class to settle for substandard temporary camps with no clear way to permanent resettlement.
