Consultation with experts to resolve land issues: Minister Rawal

Kathmandu, May 8: Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, Pratibha Rawal, has said a committee of experts would be consulted to resolve land related problems.

At a parliamentary committee meeting held on Friday, Minister Rawal said the land related problems had been pending for long because of undue political interferences in the Land Dispute Resolution Commission. Actually, the Commission should have experts, she said, pledging a formation of an experts' committee to wipe out problems. The Minister was speaking at the meeting of Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources under the House of Representatives.

She made it clear that it is not present government arranging the budget of Rs 250 million to be provided to the depositors in problematic cooperatives. It was the amount set previously, but now managed in a revolving fund. "We created a revolving fund with the same money as per the budget announced last year. We have not done anything new, it is a continuation of the old programme,” she explained.

Minister Rawal informed that many debtors contacted the ministry after the issuance of a 15-day notice to recover the loans of troubled cooperatives. Once the names of such borrowers were made public, the number grew, pledging the clearance of loan.

In regards to the unmanaged settlements, no further actions would be taken without proper identification. Rather, she complained that government recent evacuation of illegal occupancy was termed dozer terror, which was exaggerated. "No the victims but those in the guise of victims could be afraid. The land related problem will be resolved by using the existing mechanism. A meeting of the Ministry of Land Management and Urban Development will be held today itself," she shared at the meeting. 

In the meeting, Committee Chairman Ashok Kumar Chaudhary informed that a subcommittee was formed under the coordination of RSP lawmaker KP Khanal. He informed that the subcommittee includes Santosh Subba of Nepali Congress, Laxmi Prasad Pokharel of CPN-UML, Prem Bahadur Bayak of Nepali Communist Party, and Tahir Ali Bhat of RPP.

In the meeting, lawmakers Umesh Dhakal, Uttam Prasad Poudel, Laxmi Prasad Pokharel, Suresh Kumar Chaudhary, Shambhu Prasad Dhakal, KP Khanal, Basu Maya Tamang, Ashika Tamang, Santosh Subba, Samina Miya, Tahir Ali Bhat, Rajiv Khatri, Sujata Tamang, Punam Agrawal, Madhav Bahadur Thapa, Prem Bahadur Bayak, and Ganga Lakshmi Awal, among others spoke on land-related problems in various parts of the country, which requires proper resolution. Similarly, savings of depositors should be returned quickly, and the directors and employees of cooperatives misappropriating savings of depositors should be initiated legal action. Even the problems relating to the Guthi warrant resolution, they added.

Secretary at the Ministry, Madan Bhujel, shared before the lawmakers that the Cooperative Act, 2074 BS, was amended through an ordinance in a bid to resolve the problems plaguing cooperative sector. The recovery of cooperative loans was speeded up and a new Guthi Act being drafted to wipe out problems in the Guthi sector. 

Joint Secretary at the Ministry Govinda Prasad Rijal and Director General at the Department of Land Management Shiva Regmi informed the lawmakers on the additional works being carried out in the fields of cooperatives and land management. (RSS)