Twelve families in Parashuram receive land ownership certificates after 38 years

Dadeldhura: Twelve families in Jogbuda of Parashuram Municipality, located in the inner Madhesh area of Dadeldhura, have received land ownership certificates 38 years after their land was surveyed.

The families had waited nearly four decades for legal ownership of land surveyed by the Land Squatters’ Problem Resolution Commission in 2045 BS.

The commission had surveyed land belonging to locals of Khajurani and Tulabhadi villages under the former Jogbuda VDC-1 in 2045 BS. However, the process of registering the surveyed land in the names of the locals could not move forward. Although the Land Squatters’ Problem Resolution Commission restarted the process on 26 Poush 2055 BS, the ownership certificates could not be distributed.

Local Kalu Kami said residents had to wait for about four decades because work initiated by previous commissions and committees remained incomplete.

The process moved forward after the District Land Problem Resolution Committee continued the unfinished work. Based on records and documents of land previously surveyed by the commission, the necessary procedures were completed and revenue was collected according to prevailing law. Subsequently, land ownership certificates were distributed to 12 families, said Prem Dhami, chief of the Survey Office, Jogbuda.

Meanwhile, seven unorganized settled families in Ajaymeru Rural Municipality-2 have also received land ownership certificates for the first time. Rural municipality Chairman Umesh Bhatta Bikas said the municipality distributed the certificates to the families a few days ago after the District Land Problem Resolution Committee, Dadeldhura prepared and submitted them.

The families had been occupying the land for a long time without ownership registered in their names. They have now become legal landowners, providing them relief from the lack of legal security over their settlements and property.

The government has been advancing a campaign to resolve the problems of landless Dalits, landless squatters and unorganized settlers and establish them as legal landowners. Under the same campaign, unfinished work of previous commissions and committees has been continued in Dadeldhura.

According to Kailash Kumar Pandey, then chairman of the District Land Problem Resolution Committee, work was being carried out to complete the legal process by studying records of lands whose ownership certificates had not been distributed despite surveys and necessary procedures having been completed.