Preparations have been made to provide land administration services provided by the Land Revenue and Survey Office from the municipalities and rural municipalities. The government has amended the Land Revenue Act, 2034 BS for that. The Land Revenue Act has also been amended under the ordinance made to amend some Nepal Acts.

A provision has been added to the Act that allows local levels to also perform registration-related work. ‘The land management branch of the concerned local level may perform the work of written registration, transfer of title, transfer of title, deregistration, deregistration, withholding and release of withholding as prescribed,’ has been added to Section 8(c) of the Land Revenue Act.

Joint Secretary Ganesh Prasad Bhatta, spokesperson for the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, said that the provision was added by amending the Act to make legal arrangements for transferring land administration-related work to the local level. He said that efforts have been made to transfer the work being done by the Land Revenue and Survey Office to the local level. For that reason, he informed that the selection of municipalities is being done in the first phase after the amendment in the law.

The ministry had issued a notice on April 10 asking rural municipalities and municipalities that want to provide services flowing from land reform/land revenue and survey offices to come in contact. In that notice, it is said that the local level itself should arrange the manpower and infrastructure required for service delivery. Spokesperson Bhatta informed that after the notice, 214 local levels have come in contact with the ministry expressing their willingness to do the work of land administration. All the metropolitan cities, sub-metropolitan cities, municipalities and rural municipalities have been seen as those who want to take responsibility for the work.

The ministry has prepared to select 35 municipalities for the first phase from among them. An official from the Ministry's Land Administration Branch said that the selection will be made based on the capacity, physical structure and resources of the municipality. The ministry is preparing to train the employees after arranging the space, employees and equipment required for service delivery from the municipality. The ministry plans to start preparing for land administration service delivery from the beginning of Shrawan in at least 30/35 municipalities in the first phase after setting everything up.

The constitution has given the sole right to distribute real estate ownership certificates to the local level. Even after a decade since the constitution was promulgated, local levels have not been able to exercise this right. The main reason for this is the lack of law and the indifference shown by the federal government in the transfer of rights. The Local Government Operation Act, 2074 BS has assigned the right to the municipalities to measure, map, divide, register, transfer and cancel local land. Similarly, the local level has been assigned the right to distribute landowner registration certificates and manage records, coordinate and facilitate the work of measuring, mapping and determining the ownership of land, and distribute other work related to landowner registration certificates.

Narulal Chaudhary, General Secretary of the Municipal Association, welcomes the steps the government is trying to take towards implementing the constitution and federalism. 'The constitution has given the right.' However, since the federal government has not transferred the authority, the local level has not been able to carry out land registration and other tasks,' he told Kantipur. 'We have repeatedly asked for the transfer of the authority. Now, the government's indication that it will transfer the authority by amending the law is welcome.'

However, he said that the resources should also be transferred along with the work. He said that they are demanding that the local level should be allowed to keep 100 percent of the land registration fee. 'The ministry has said that the work should be carried out. But, it is saying that it will not provide employees and resources,' he said. 'If that is the case, we are saying that the registration revenue should be left to the municipality.'

The local level has been receiving 60 percent of the revenue collected from the land registration office from the land revenue office and the provincial government has been receiving 40 percent. The federal government collects the profit tax. The local level receives 100 percent of the land revenue fee. Chaudhary, who is also the mayor of Dang Ghorahi Sub-metropolitan City, says that the responsibility for the work should come from the association along with the resources.

Land administration-related work has been being done from 137 land revenue offices across the country, including 77 district headquarters. The ministry's spokesperson Bhatta said that the goal is to gradually extend it to all 753 municipalities. The ministry plans to gradually transfer the work responsibility to municipalities that can take on this responsibility from their own resources. It has been identified that a minimum of 9 employees are required in a municipality for land revenue and survey-related work. This includes computer and survey technical staff. In large municipalities with high workload, more employees will be required.

Laxmi Devi Pandey, president of the National Federation of Rural Municipalities, says that they have been continuously demanding that the responsibility for land revenue-related work be transferred to the local level as per the constitution. Pandey, who is also the chairperson of Nawalparasi Hupsekot Rural Municipality, said that people are spending time and money while receiving services from the Land Revenue Office, and are suffering from delays and middlemen. “We have considered the government’s efforts as positive. We have also found all the municipalities eager to take on this responsibility,” she said. Since this is not only an administrative but also a technical task, the federal government will need necessary training and skilled manpower, she said.