Three elected officials of Kathmandu are leading a campaign to build parks by reclaiming public land from encroachers.

Himal Lamsal: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal

A division bench of then justice of the Supreme Court Deepak Raj Joshi and Om Prakash Mishra ruled on February 21, 2016 that the 36 ropani 6 anna public land on the Dhobikhola corridor belonged to Ram Prasad Upadhyay Bhattarai of Okhaldhunga. Following the court’s verdict, Ram Prasad, claiming to be the tenant, made numerous attempts to register the land in his name. But the tireless efforts of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Ward 5 Chairman Ramesh Dangol and Handigaun residents have prevented the land from being transferred to Ram Prasad’s name.

The encroached land protected by boundary near Dhanganesh temple demolished using dozer by Ward 5.  Pic: Himal Lamsal

Dangol, who saved the land worth over Rs 2 billion as per the going rate from falling into the hands of the fake tenant, faces the threat of committing a contempt of court. The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority on September 22, 2016 and the Dillibazaar Land Revenue Office on March 11, 2019 wrote to the ward office pressuring it to implement the court’s decision. The LRO has still been calling for a public inquiry (sarjamin) of the land. “The order may have been the Supreme Court’s but how can I hold a public inquiry for the public land in favour of a fake tenant?” Dangol asked. “If I carry out the order, the public land goes to the hands of land mafia; if I don’t, I run the risk of being charged with contempt of court.”

The Society for Conservation of Government and Public Land has been saving public property in cooperation with people’s representatives and local residents. According to Birendra Prajapati, secretary for the Society, conservation of public land has been easier since the election of people’s representatives. “The 1965 survey clearly shows the Dhobikhola corridor land as public property. How could it possibly belong to an individual now?” he asks. “We will never allow the attempt to misappropriate the public land by faking documents to succeed.”

At Dangol’s initiative, the ward office has fenced with wall 16 ropanis of the 36 ropani 6 anna land in coordination with the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority. A green public park has been planned to be built there at the cost of Rs 15 million.

Ward Chairman Dongol is also campaigning to reclaim the land around Dhanganesh Temple from encroachers. “We used excavator to clear the encroached upon public land. A wall is being built for the conservation of the land,” he said. The land shown by the 2021 survey to belong to the Dhanganesh temple was grabbed by Bishnu Koirala, the son of Bir Bahadur Koirala. Society Secretary Birendra Prajapati says the Koiralas who came to reside there in 2030 had misappropriated the 13 anna land belonging to the temple.

“Eight of the 13 anna land has been brought under the temple’s ownership,” said Prajapati. “They are refusing to leave the land where the house stands.” Saying that he had evidence of land ownership even if he lacked the official registration, Bishnu said efforts were being made to evict his family rooted there since 1965. A case related to the plot where Koirala’s house stands is sub judice in the Kathmandu District Court. Koirala says he will give up the land if the court does not rule in his favour.

Ward 3 recovered encroached land and building its office in that land.

Kathmandu Ward 4 office has reclaimed 3 ropani 12 anna land adjoined with the Dhobikhola stream by bulldozing shutters and a driving centre operated there by the family of Gyanu Chapagain Upadhyay of Sukedhara.

Ward Chairman Mohan Bahadur Bista is campaigning for saving public land from encroachers. “When frequent requests for removing structures built on public property were defied, we bulldozed them in the first week of December. We’ll build a park there now,” Bista says. The Ward 4 office is making efforts also to reclaim 15 ropani land at the Dhobikhola banks from individual encroachers.

Gyanu’s son Pramod Chapagain said that their enemies had conspired to snatch away from them the land they had been using since 1964. Even if the family lacked ownership certificate, he claimed that the Chapagains had got the land from Dhan Mishra, who had first got permission to use the property from Sainla Ghatero in around 1964.

Bista, who has reclaimed more than 70 ropanis of public land from encroachers, says: “This is not my sole effort. We have been able to conserve public and government land with the help and cooperation of the people here.”

With the unflinching initiative of the ward residents, the campaigners have saved 25 ropanis of land from encroaching neighbours by measuring plots along the 500 metre stretch from Dhumbarahi Chowk to Shivasthali Temple in Kathmandu Metropolis Ward 4.

Dhanwantari Park has been built by reclaiming the public space encroached upon in Dhumbarahi. The park inaugurated on November 2, 2019 was built at a cost of Rs 1.2 million with the joint initiative of the Province 3 government and Dhanwantari Club. The Ward 4 office has built Tusal Park at Kapan Marg on 6 ropani public land rented out by Harisingh Thakuri and Kanchha Singh Thakuri by building huts on the stretch.

The Thakuri brothers moved the district and high courts against the decision of the ward office but both the courts ruled that the land was public. Laid the foundation stone on May 20, 2019 by provincial assembly members Narayan Silwal and Sita Dahal, the park was inaugurated by deputy prime minister and defence minister Ishwar Pokhrel on August 24.

World Hindu Federation building on Bansbari public space.

In addition, at the initiative of chairman Bista and the ward residents, 11 ropani public land at Naya Colony Krishna Marg, additional 3 ropanis at Dhobikhola Corridor, and 2 ropanis at Dhumbarahi has been wrested from individual encroachers. On the land thus recovered, the ward office has built seven parks with resources obtained from the provincial government and others. These include Bhatbhateni Park, the Baluwatar park at Rastra Bank chowk, Shankha Park, Dhanwantari Park, Rara Park and Anandanagar Garden.

Anish Bhattarai, the Nepali Congress candidate who lost to Bista in the local level election, says: “Earlier, the civil society had been working on the conservation of public land. It has been easier since people’s representatives took charge.”

Former secretary Sharada Prasad Trital, coordinator of the committee formed to investigate the misappropriation of state, public and guthi land and the property acquired and seized by the government, concludes that the land mafia makes attempts to claim such plots through fake cases. “The land mafia is so powerful that they can make any settings anywhere,” said Trital. “The society also has to aid the efforts of people’s representatives to save encroached public land.”

Laxman Maske of Kathmandu Ward 4 had built a house for rent on the one ropani public land next to his property. Chairman Bista took back the land. When Maske appealed to the court, the district and high courts both quashed his writ petition.

Bista has set up Ward 4 office in the building. “Those misappropriating public land should have been punished after charging them with forgery,” he said. “We’ve been serving the people by removing the land mafia from there.”

Hotel Kathmandu had occupied the 6 anna 2 paisa land adjacent to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Ward 3 office in Panipokhari for 17 years. The ward office requested the hotel owner verbally and in writing several times to clear the land, to no avail. When the owner ignored the one-month notice to pull down the two-storey structure, Kathmandu Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya reached there with digging tools. He initiated the campaign to remove the building on March 5, 2018.

Having a price over Rs 40 million in the going rate, the metropolis laid the foundation stone for a three-storey ward office building on May 30. Dipak KC, the Kathmandu Ward 3 chairman, says the structure was bulldozed and the land reclaimed as numerous orders to clear the space were ignored.

Public space used by Gayatri family.

The Ward 3 office is also preparing to reclaim the 24 ropani 12 anna Bansbari land being used by the Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh. The government had authorized the Mahasangh 17 years ago to use the land. A 42 anna plot adjacent to the Mahasangh is being used by an organization called Gayatri Pariwar. Since the organizations had violated the terms of authorization, the civil authority is preparing to revoke the permission and build a park there, KC says.

The ward office has been building a park on the 3 ropani 7 anna land occupied by the Vishwa Shanti Chiran Milan Community Campus excluding the buildings. A park is also being built on the 136 ropani land in Ranibari. According to the ward office, of the 16 ropani area covered by the nursery lane, the design is being prepared for an eco-park to be spread over five ropanis.

Mohan Raman Bhattarai, chairman of the Inquiry Commission on Conservation of Government, Public and Guthi land, says their study shows an encroachment of public, government and guthi land across the country. “In Kathmandu Valley, individuals are seen to have misappropriated public, government and guthi land through fraudulent means. Such land is seen to have been registered in the name of individuals by even tricking the court.”

The commission has received 177 complaints in six months from across the country. But Bhattarai did not want to reveal the data on the encroachment and misappropriation of non-private land in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur. “We are preparing a report. The agency concerned will then make it public,” he said.

“We will reclaim the land”

The 1994 report of the High Level Commission on Probe and Conservation of Public Land shows, based on the 1964 survey, that 1,859 ropani 14 anna 3 paisa 3 dam public land was encroached upon in Kathmandu’s municipal area alone. Among it, 116 ropanis was in Handigaun and 222 ropanis in Bouddha. Retired secretary Ram Bahadur Rawal chaired the commission formed by then-prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala on December 31, 1992. The Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal has published an investigative report on it earlier but the government has not taken any action about it yet.

Public land in Sukedhara encroached by driving institute finally cleared by ward 4.

Former secretary Sharada Prasad Trital, coordinator of the committee formed to investigate the misappropriation of state, public and guthi land and the property acquired and seized by the government, says the three-decade-old Rawal Commission is still relevant. “The report has not been implemented yet. Much public land would be conserved even if the property only suggested by the report was reclaimed,” says Trital.

Data with the Kathmandu Metropolitan City shows the encroachment of 2,548 ropani 7 anna 1 paisa 1 dam government and public land of 890 plots within the metropolis. The Local Government Operation Act-2017 authorises a local government to conserve public land within its area. Kathmandu Mayor Shakya says the local representatives elected two years ago are busy reclaiming property from encroachers. “We’re serving the people by building parks and ward offices on the reclaimed encroached land,” said Shakya. “We’ll recover all the land from encroachers in coordination with the people.”