KATHMANDU, AUGUST 03
The government today dissolved the Land Related Problem-Solving Commission that was formed by the KP Sharma Oli government on 22 March 2020.
The commission was formed to provide land to landless people across the country and to manage informal settlers. It had a tenure of three years.
The commission was headed by Devi Prasad Gyawali, who had lost Bharatpur Metropolitan City's mayoral race to CPN-Maoist Centre candidate and CPN-MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal's daughter Renu Dahal.
Bhim Bahadur Karki, who was a member of the dissolved commission, said the commission had formed its district committees on February 21 and had signed agreements with 743 local levels to collect data of landless people and land available in those local levels for the beneficiaries.
Karki said 513 local levels had issued notice giving people 35 days to file their application and in that period 1,180,761people submitted applications, including 247,960 landless families and 932,841 were informal settlers.
Karki said that the commission had sent 1.7 million forms to local levels and 25,000 families who had filed applications in the past seeking government land were in the final phase of getting land ownership certificates.
Karki said the government should have talked to commission members before abruptly deciding to dissolve the commission. He said the government's decision to dissolve the commission made the status of those who had filed application seeking government land uncertain. "The constitution guarantees the citizens' right to housing. Since the constitution says that landless Dalits will be provided land, the government's action will deprive the intended beneficiaries of their fundamental rights," he said.
Government Spokesperson and Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said the government decided to dissolve the commission, as the process of forming the commission was faulty. He said since the commission did not follow its objectives, the government decided to dissolve it. He said the government had told the intended beneficiaries to submit their applications at district land revenue offices.
CPN-MC leader Dev Prasad Gurung, who is a member of the task force formed by the five-party alliance, told THT that the government decided to dissolve the commission as the Land Act stipulated that the government could dissolve the commission as and when it deemed necessary. He said since political appointments made by the Oli government were wrong, the government did the right thing by dissolving the commission.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 4 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
