By Parmananda Pandey | Tikapur

 

 Setraj Budha’s family moved to Tikapur in Kailali, a district in the western plains, from the hill district of Achham, in 1964. Many from his village had migrated to Tikapur around the same time. Together, they cleared the forest and have been farming and living in the land ever since. Interestingly, none of them have land own­ership certificates.

 

Bhim Mahar lives and does farming in the same ward. His father Gagan Singh Mahar had migrated there from the hills. He had made the area his home after the District Forest Office, Kanchanpur, back in the mid-60s, gave migrants the go-ahead to “clear forest areas and settle”. Gagan Singh then built a house and raised his children there, but passed away without getting a land certificate.

 

Around 2,000 hectares of land in Ward 8 of Tikapur is officially not owned by anybody

 

Settlers in 80 percent of the land in Ward 8 of Tikapur are without a land certificate, even though they have been living there for years. Some have a certificate, but their land cannot be found in offi­cial records. Around 2,000 hectares of land in the ward is officially not owned by any­body.

 

“We made several efforts to solve this problem but to no avail,” says Ammar Bahadur Saud, a local, who does have a land ownership certificate, but his land is not found in official records.

 

Ward chair Dirgha Thakulla says, “Officials from the sur­vey department have visited us multiple times, and taken measurements thrice, but they are yet to issue certifi­cates.”

 

Lack of certificates greatly inconveniences the locals. For instance, they do not get subsidies from the agricul­ture ministry. “We have been unable to split or sell the land that we have had from our grandfather’s time. This has even led to family feuds,” says Sher Bahadur Budha, another local. Tikapur also shares a border with India and dis­putes over border issues erupt from time to time

 

 

‘Land ownership certificates for everyone within the next four years’

 

By Laxman Pokhrel | Butwal

 

 The federal government has expressed its commitment to provide land ownership cer­tificates within the next four years to all landless squatters living haphazardly in various urban settlements across the country. Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Padma Aryal promised that the gov­ernment would give priority to squatters who own land but do not have certificates to prove ownership, and to those living in unmanaged settlements.

 

 On May 26, 464 land ownership certificates were distributed in Sainamaina municipality

 

She informed that the gov­ernment’s drive to distribute land ownership certificates has already started. It began on May 26 from Buddhanagar in Sainamaina municipality in Rupendehi district. On that day, as many as 464 land own­ership certificates were dis­tributed. Minister Aryal said the drive would be expanded to other districts as well and reiterated the government’s promise to solve the problem of landless squatters during its tenure.