Maya Bishwakarma of Resunga Municipality-7 completed all procedures required for obtaining a land ownership document. However, it took her two years to acquire just the evidence. However, by the time the land ownership document was obtained, the land commission responsible for issuing ownership documents had been abolished. Bishwakarma expressed that it took her two years to complete the process. She mentioned that there was hope after receiving the evidence. However, with the commission no longer in existence, she wondered what they would receive.
Likewise, many generations of Jit Bahadur Gharti Magar of Resunga Municipality-3 were landless. He also applied for the process in the commission many times. However, the process was not completed. Now that he has got the evidence for the land he is still unsure about how long he has to wait to obtain the land ownership document.
About 2,600 Dalits, who are landless and unorganized residents, have gathered information for land acquisition through the National Land Commission in Gulmi. The National Land Commission was established on August 22, 2021. With the formation of the commission in the district, 2,599 citizens of 12 local levels of the district have collected details so far.
Out of which 308 are Dalits, 261 landless and 2030 unorganized residents.Tilachan Pandey, an expert member of the then National Land Commission Gulmi, informed that the details were collected by the most unorganized residents.
Evidence paper has been distributed in all 12 local levels of the district. According to Pandey, 2,093 people including landless Dalits, landless and unorganized residents have received the evidence paper.
The commission is under the grip of an unstable government. As a result, beneficiaries face challenges, especially since the commission was abolished during the government’s restructuring. Khildhwaj Panthi, Mayor of Resunga Municipality, mentioned that obtaining evidence paper is considered to be a great achievement in this matter. He expressed that if the commission had not been abolished, the distribution of land ownership documents would have been distributed in short time. Panthi emphasized that although the municipality has completed necessary work from its, the commission should be formed and take further action to assist people in obtaining land ownership documents.
According to the commission, landless people, and landless Dalits will get 340 square meters of land and 3000 Sq meter for them to use the land for agricultural purposes. Similarly, 1000 Sq meter of land will be provided to unorganized residents and 10,000 Sq meter for them to use for agricultural purposes. The land can be allocated either through the Dalits quota, or unorganized residents quota, but it cannot be allocated twice.
However, suitable land for distribution is not available at the local level due to forest area, public welfare, and road considerations as per the then Chairperson of the National Land Commission District Committee, Gulmi Ram Malla Thakuri. Land survey work has been completed in Ruru Chhetra Rural Municipality, Musikot Municipality, and Chandrakot Rural Municipality. However, no suitable land was identified in Chandrakot during this process. Ruru Chhetra Rural Municipality is nearing the final stages of allocating portions after measurement. Nevertheless, distributing land ownership documents poses challenges. Malla expressed concern over the situation where landless individuals, including Dalits, are living by occupying land belonging to others. He pointed out that since the local level, the ward has not identified those lands, there is another problem in measurement for the distribution. He noted that the issues with measuring and distributing land ownership documents are caused due to lack of resources, and lack of employees within the Commission Committee.
The Constitution of Nepal 2015, Article 25(1) states that every citizen shall, subject to the law, have the right to acquire, own, sell, dispose of, acquire business profits from, and otherwise deal with property. However, the people of Gulmi have been deprived of this right guaranteed by the constitution.