Biratnagar, November 19:

Though the government has announced rebate for Dalits, women, physically challenged and martyrs’ families while registration of land purchase, no Dalit in Morang has come forth to claim the same. The government announced in the budget a rebate of 25 per cent in the registration fee to provide special privilege to the Dalit community in land purchase. It was 20 per cent in the last budget.

Not a single Dalit has approached the office seeking the privilege, according to sources in the land revenue office, Morang. Most of the Dalits were not aware of the privilege in the absence of the wide publicity of the government, said a Dalit human rights activist Umesh Biswokarma.

The land revenue office believes its obligation is perfectly met once it is stated in the civic charter outside of its office.

Head of the land revenue office, Shyam Dahal did not miss to say that the information on the privilege is clearly stated in the civic charter.

“Moreover, we have informed all VDCs by forwarding them the civic charter”, Dahal said. However, he said that the information flow was in the bottleneck as most VDC secretaries were in the district headquarters.

To enjoy the privilege, recommendation of the concerned VDC is a must. The statistics of the land

revenue office showed that 3,199 plots were registered in the current

fiscal year, of them 1,378 women

enjoyed rebate amounting to Rs 29,18,000.