ACHHAM: At least 400 households of Mellekh Rural Municipality in Achham have been deprived of landownership certificates ever since their certificates were burnt in an attack during the Maoist insurgency in 2052 BS.

The District Special Survey Office has already launched a special re-survey of their land in 2071 BS.

As a result, the locals are finding it hard to avail of various services like bank loan, while land tax is yet to be paid since then.

Our repeated calls to various concerned authorities for the same have fallen on deaf ears, the locals complained. "The land has been surveyed, but the registration process is yet to be done, depriving us of landownership certificates," said Khadga Bahadur Shah, a local.

When asked, the SSO Chief Siya Ram Thakur said the failure to produce other documents that will establish the land is in a concerned person's name has been the reason behind their deprivation of landownership certificates.

The rural municipality Chief Lok Bahadur Bohara said efforts were on to help the locals get landownership certificates.