Kathmandu, August 29 :

The Guthi Sansthan Central Office today submitted a preliminary report of the guthi land owned by the king and other members of the royal family at a parliamentary sub-committee which is investigating the property of the royals.

The Sansthan — sole administrator of land owned by the trusts of temples, shrines, mosques and other religious organisations — told the sub-committee under the Natural Resources Committee that the royal family and late King Birendra own 48 ropanis of guthi land in Kathmandu and 17 bighas in the Terai.

According to the report, princess Helen Shah owns 12 ropanis of land in Swoyambhu VDC in the name of Bishnumati Nanak math. Princess Kumari Shanti Singh owns five ropanis in Kalanki VDC in the name of Nanda Kishwor Guthi, Princess Ketaki Chestar owns six ropanis in Swoyambhu VDC in the name of Bishnumati Nanak Math.

Five ropanis of land in Kalimati Tankeshwor VDC has been registered in the name of late King Birendra, Princess Puja owns eight ropanis of land in Dhapasi VDC in the name of Ashok Vinayak Guthi and Princess Shanti Singh owns 17 bighas in Simara of Bara.

“I will furnish further information after collecting details from the districts,” chief administrator of Guthi Sansthan, Hem Raj Subedi, told the sub-committee headed by MP Subhas Karmachaya.

Similarly, secretary of the Ministry of Land Reforms and Management, Rabindra Man Joshi, told the committee that the Land Revenue Offices were facing difficulties to freeze transactions of land owned by the royals. “Though the committee has directed us to halt transactions, we are still facing problems, as there is no legal ground to halt such transactions,” he added.

Karmacharya told the ministry and Guthi sansthans not to allow any member of the royal family to transfer the ownership of their land as per the spirit of the historic parliamentary declaration. He directed the ministry to submit details of the land owned by the king and his family. The ministry has already produced details that the king and the royal family own 39,424 ropanis of land in the Kathmandu Valley and hilly districts and more than 127 bighas in the Terai.