More than 400 families of Melauli Municipality-8 in Baitadi have been forced to go to the neighboring district of Dadeldhura to pay land tax for almost 50 years.

Due to an error in surveying and record management around 2032/33 BS, the landowners of the former Vishalpur VDC (Melauli Municipality-8) in Baitadi had to go to Dadeldhura to pay their property tax. This problem has not been resolved even after the local level restructuring. As the administrative error of five decades ago has not been resolved, they have had to go outside the district to receive government services.

More than 400 families of the former Vishalpur VDC in Melauli-8 have been paying their land tax continuously to Bhageshwor Rural Municipality-3 in Dadeldhura since 2032/33 BS. According to Melauli-8 ward chairman Tapendra Bista, locals have to go to another district as the old records have not been corrected.

‘Since the ward’s land registry office is still in Dadeldhura, locals are still forced to go there to pay land revenue tax,’ he said, ‘due to which service recipients have to face unnecessary hassle.’ He said that despite several initiatives and efforts made by the relevant bodies to resolve this problem, concrete results have not been achieved.

Yubaraj Bista, a local from Kotigaun, complained that even though the state claims to make services easier, they are forced to go outside the district to pay ordinary taxes, adding that this has added time, expense and labor. Similarly, another local, Gokarna Damai, said that the difference between voting and administrative services has confused them. He said that even if the voter list remains in Baitadi and participates in the elections, the compulsion to go to Dadeldhura for all land-related work should end.

According to Dambarraj Joshi, ward chairman of Bhageshwor Rural Municipality-3 in Dadeldhura, 13 villages in Baitadi were affiliated with Panchayat Dadeldhura in the past. Later, when the district was divided, those villages were included in Baitadi. ‘During the merger, the current Kotigaun of Melauli-8 was connected to Bogta of Bhageshwor-3 in the structure at that time,’ he said, ‘We do not claim that the residents of Melauli-8 should pay taxes in our ward. The people of Kotigaun do not have houses and land here, but they come to pay land revenue.’ He said that even though they should pay taxes in their own ward, they have not been able to take it to the legal process. Bhageshwor-3 and Melauli-8 of Dadeldhura are connected areas.

Kamalapati Bhatta, head of the Land Revenue Office, Dadeldhura, also said that this problem is related to the old survey process. ‘The survey of 2033 BS was done from Dadeldhura,’ he said, ‘At that time, Dadeldhura surveyed Melauli, Bishalpur in Baitadi, that place was in Bhageshwor-8 and 9 at that time.’ According to him, till now, the work of paying land revenue is being done in Bhageshwor-3. But the demand of the locals is that since the land is in Baitadi, taxes and other transactions should also be done there.

‘In the past, a committee was formed on this issue and the process of field monitoring and submitting a report was taken forward,’ Bhatta said, ‘The Land Management and Records Department had issued instructions to seek opinions from the concerned bodies.’ But since no opinion was received from anywhere, we have prepared our opinion and sent it to the department with a suggestion that since the land belongs to Baitadi, it is appropriate to transfer the Sresta to Baitadi.'