All Nepal Farmers’ Association Revolutionary has warned its mother party the Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoist (UCPN) that returning the land seized by the party during the 10-year insurgency would not be so easy without conclusively addressing the issues of the homeless and the landless, most of whom are the victims of the existing feudal land patterns in Nepal.
Although the Nepal government (then His Majesty’s government) through its amended land reform Act in 2001 fixed the upper ceiling of land ownership at 11 Bigahs for the plains, 75 ropanis for the hills and 25 ropanis for the Kathmandu valley, not a single government formed so has been able to implement it, the reason being the supremacy of landlords in the national politics for long. The concept of the land ceiling was meant for seizing the land above the ceiling while also preserving food-producing land. The Act has specified that out of 11 bigahs in the plains, 1 bigah was meant for residence and 10 bigahs for agriculture; out of 75 ropanis in the hills, 5 ropanis was meant for residence while 70 ropanis for cultivation; out of 30 ropanis in the Kathmandu Valley, 5 ropanis was meant for residence while 25 ropanis for cultivation. Contrarily, most of the most fertile land has been used for erecting personal buildings and commercial housing appartments by completely ignoring the ceiling. Moreover, corrupt government officials and leaders have raced to buy more land where they would make housing complexes. They have completely foiled the legal ceiling.
Currently, several leaders in Nepal own hundreds of bigahs though they do not toil but only own it. Former royal family members own the greatest volume of land in Nepal. The Nepalis have never witnessed any government from 1950s to date that has gone into this issue in an honest manner.
Maoist insurgents had seized land in different parts of the country and distributed them to the landless and the homeless during their war with the govenment. Returning land to concerned owners is one of the points of their latter agreements. However, the land ceiling has not been addressed in the agreements. While millions of homeless and landless people in Nepal have been demanding for their settlement, the Maoist-led government formed two weeks ago has ordered the land users to return the land seized and distributed by the Maoist insurgents during the war period.
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