Land reforms may cost Rs 32.5b: Report

If the government is to implement land reforms, as parties have committed in the Comprehensive Peace Accord, it would cost the state Rs 32.5 billion, estimates a report of High Level Scientific Land Reform Commission (HLSLRC).

The report that the government made public on Monday along with the report of other commission -- Land Reforms Commission (LRC) -- have urged the government to redefine land based on their usage and also set new ceiling of land that a person can hold in Nepal.

The LRC was formed in 2009 by the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, while the HLSLRC was formed by Madhav Kumar Nepal during his premiership in 2010. Both the reports released on the day have pushed for the end of dual ownership of land, tenancy and redistribution of land to landless squatters, farmers and various indigenous groups.

However, they have proposed different modalities for fixing land ownership ceiling. Both the commissions have linked land reforms with agricultural productivity, judicious access to land, conservation and development of land and formation of strong land administration and agricultural management.

HLSLRC has mainly proposed for the distribution of 421,770 hectares of land to about 1.41 million families, including 450,000 households of landless squatters and 287,100 landless farmer families. For the distribution, it has proposed to the government to distribute degraded forest areas, government owned land, land belonging to Guthi, reclaimed river banks and land that the government will claim by strictly enforcing the land ownership ceiling.

“Together, these will generate land 492,851 hectares. This will easily fulfill the land stretch needed for redistribution,” said Laxmi Prasad Prasai, member of HLSLRC.

HLSLRC has pushed the government to arrange housing for landless squatters in areas close to job centers, whereas LRC has urged to government to provide them productive land.

The two commissions, however, have similar opinion when it comes to categorizing land. They have pushed the government to categorize land into agricultural land and non-agricultural land. While agricultural land will be exclusively used for farming purposes, non-agricultural land will be further zoned into residential/housing, industrial and tourism areas, among others.

Both the commissions have pushed for formation of Land Tribunal for speedy settlement of disputes and cases related to land. They have also asked the government to enforce single land ownership certificate system and maintain integrated digitized data of land owned by each individual. The commissions have also pressed for reforms and modernization of land administration.

Receiving the reports, Prime Minister Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai expressed commitments that the government will take good recommendations from both the commissions and formulate the new land policy and laws accordingly.

“Land reform is one of the key agendas of Comprehensive Peace Accord as well. Hence, we will implement it in consultation with all political parties,” he added.

He also said that the government will not just focus on distribution of land but also on its productive use and economic benefits while implementing the land reforms.

Source:myrepublica

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