SIRAHA, SEPTEMBER 14

Province 2 Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut today said that land mafias would be booked at any cost.

Addressing a programme organised by the struggle committee formed to save public land at Choharwa of Siraha, CM Raut said people involved in selling public land would be punished. He insisted that people selling and buying government and forest land in the name of squatters were criminals.

“Stealing is a crime. Those who buy stolen goods at cheap price are criminals.

They have to be booked as well,” added Raut.

Raut thanked the locals for waging a fight against the mafia involved in transferring public land in the names of individuals. “What you have been doing is great. No one has the right to sell unregistered land.

The land will be returned at any rate,” Raut added.

Locals have been staging protest for months demanding that public land registered in the names of individuals be returned.

Earlier, two bigha, nine kathha and 13 dhur public land registered in the names of individuals was returned due to locals’ protest Squatters Commission member Dev Kumar Moktan had sold dozens of plots belonging to a community forest in 2002.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 15, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.