Nepalgunj, January 30

With the government bracing to take back land plots, which it says belong to Bageshwori temple in Janaki Rural Municipality, Banke, landowners, who claim the land as their own have started an agitation.

In view of the government preparation to take back 84 bigha land adjoining the temple, landowners concerned resorted to agitation yesterday.

The agitators organised a rally from Karamohana and Indrapur villages and rallied to BP Chowk, where they demonstrated and put up a brief chakkajam for 15 minutes.

A protest rally was also taken out today and demonstration was held for an hour in front of the district administration.

The agitating landowners have asked the government to properly investigate the issue before taking a decision to take away the land.

“How on earth can land that we have been paying taxes for all these years belong to the temple or the government?” asked land owner Dipak Shah. “The government must take its wrong decision back; or else, we’ll be forced to intensify our agitation,” he added, informing about a scheduled programme of sit-in in front of the district land revenue office tomorrow.

“It’s been long since we purchased the land and started using it. We possess land ownership certificates too. The government must first be informed about the reality before taking any action or decision,” said Abdul Rasid Bagban, a farmer of Karamohana.

According to local Tularam Kurmi, he has documents vouching that the land belong to them for ages.

“I have documents that show that we’ve been paying land tax way back from 1876,” he said.

The government’s recent preparations to take back the land that it recognises as the temple’s comes on the ground that locals misappropriated, following the recommendation of the commission set up to protect guthi lands.