Rautahat, July 25:

In a hasty bid to save their lands from confiscation, landlords here are reported to be transferring ownership of their lands to their relatives.

They fear the government is going to announce a land ceiling and would confiscate land that exceeds the ceiling.

The Rautahat District Land Revenue Office also confirmed that an increasing number of people are transferring their land ownership to their relatives.

Kiran Kumar Bhattarai, chief of the office, said: “People here are busy transferring ownership of their lands and big landlords are worried over the rumour of announcement of a land ceiling.”

“These days more than 100 people come here for land registration on a daily basis. Earlier, only around 40 people used to come here with land-related jobs,” Bhattarai said.

“We cannot stop transfer of land ownership unless we get directions from the authority concerned,” Bhattarai said.

Advocate Kumar Bibekananda Mishra said that people who have more than five bighas of land are found to be transferring land ownership to their relatives. A landlord who had come to the land revenue office said he owned 15 bighas of land, but now he transferred ownership of five bighas of land each to his son and his brother-in-law.