It would be wrong to understand that the management of the landless is the sole responsibility of the commission. Political commitment is equally important in this work.
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How many are landless in Nepal? How many are unorganized residents? To date, no one has a solid answer. For this, the land related problem resolution commission formed in 2077 started a concerted effort. Currently, the local level is taking the data based on systematic questionnaire and entering it into the computerized system.
If the concerned local level is responsible, it is possible to prepare the budget in the next few months. There is a facilitation committee at the local level for data collection, verification and validation. The committee consists of elected public representatives, active political party representatives and representatives and experts of active organizations in the land, housing and agriculture sectors. Mechanism Facilitation Committees are responsible for determining who is landless and who is not, and recommending land registration and distribution. Which are at ward and municipality level. There is a provision that only the landless and unorganized families who have been verified by the Facilitation Committee and recommended will get land. That is, only the land where they live will be registered.
After the issue of solving the problem of landless Dalits and squatters has been given priority in the constitution of Nepal, laws have been amended and created for the implementation of that issue. Section 52B of the Land Act 2021 clearly states, "Landless squatter is a person who does not own land in his or his family's possession and is unable to manage the land with his or his family's income, resources or efforts, or his dependent family members."
Article 40 of the Constitution guarantees the fundamental right of 'one-time allotment of land and housing to landless Dalits'. In order to implement these laws, the land related problem resolution commission was formed in 2076. This commission prioritized the registration of landless Dalits, landless squatters and unorganized residents across the country by making a simple and detailed procedure and started updating it systematically.
At present, the Commission has a digital database of more than 11 lakh landless and unorganized families across the country. Even though 15 commissions were formed before that, there were no systematic records, who got how much land? Details are hard to come by.
Commission has made the process of application collection accountable and transparent so that no one misses out and no one repeats and no wrong person can take advantage of it. The situation of landless people registering and acquiring land is not as easy as it seems. Since public notices are published frequently even at ward, municipality and district level, if anyone tries to register land by wrong procedure, anyone can file a complaint.
If the land is registered through the wrong process, there is a law that fines will be imposed and the land will be confiscated. According to the Land Problem Solution Commission's details so far, agreements have been signed with 751 local levels. Lalitpur Metropolitan Municipality and Bhaktapur Municipality have not signed an agreement with the Commission yet.
According to the updated details so far, 11,29,517 entries have been completed. Accordingly, the forms of landless Dalits 88,895 (8 percent), landless squatters 1,68,441 (15 percent) and unorganized dwellers 8,72,181 (77 percent) have been listed in the government records with family details. The
commission has started to move forward with the files of 86,400 more families, whose work has been progressed by various commissions and committees in the past, but which are incomplete and parts have not been distributed. Only 7,158 (0.63 percent) of the families who submitted their applications have registered their land and received Lalpurja.
Even though 751 local levels have signed an agreement with the commitment to register and manage land for the landless living in their municipal areas, not all of them have carried out this work. This is the sad part. Looking at the details of the commission, 208 local levels have not collected data or even if they have, they have not entered the system. 90 of them are from Madhesh province.
It is estimated that around 1.5 million families are landless and living unorganized. Within this financial year, the government has put 5 lakh families in the policy and program to distribute the land owner parts. It would be wrong to understand that the management of the landless is the sole responsibility of the commission. Political commitment is equally important in this work.
The support of government employees is important at the implementation level. The activism and facilitation of land activists, rights workers who have fought and struggled for the rights of the landless since 20 years will be important step by step. In this work, it is necessary for the landless families themselves to show more awareness about establishing their rights. The problems of landless people across the country can be solved only if there is cooperation with the positive pressure of all stakeholders.
