Illegal parcelling off of the land in Godavari Municipality, Lalitpur has not only destroyed agricultural land but also encroached on forest area and public land. The local government, which is supposed to take action against the uprooting of communities, has become a puppet in the hands of businessmen.
Suresh Tamang |CIJ, Nepal
There is a pine forest near PIA Park in Godavari-6 Faidol, Lalitpur. There is a beautiful settlement of 10-12 houses near the forest. Just above the settlement, a plot of 12 ropanis of land has been cleared, levelled, and parcelled off.
One morning last July, Ram Kumar Sijapati, 56, a resident of the same settlement heard a loud noise similar to the bursting of a tire. Before he could make sense of what was going on, floodwaters entered the house.
Sijapati, who ran towards the back of his house in a panic, found out that a mound on the parcelled land had collapsed and hit the wall of his house hard. Immediately the neighbours came and drained the water. The immediate risk was averted, but the problem persisted.
Ram Kumar Sijapati’s house in Godavari Municipality-6, Lalitpur. Sijapati was forced to abandon his house after it became inhabitable due to illegal parcelling of land uphill. Photos: Suresh Tamang
“The land mafia used a backhoe loader on land above the house and the settlement is now unsafe, ” says Sijapati. “We complained to the ward office and the municipality, but in vain. So, we had to leave.” Now his house has been abandoned and seven ropanis of land next to it have been left barren.
The illegal parcelling of land has also affected 11 other houses in the settlement. Bhim Bahadur Tamang, a resident, says, “Ram Kumar abandoned his house and went elsewhere, we have no place to go. If you say something, the goons come and threaten us.”
Chairman of Jhyalumtar Community Forest Shyam Tamang said that businessmen involved in an illegal land trade in Godavari-10 Muldol have encroached upon public land as well as land belonging to the community forest. “Landslides have occurred in the forest due to the use of heavy machinery, ” he said. ” They are forcing it.”
According to Tamang, the community forest wrote to the Division Forest Office in Lalitpur for action but to no avail. Meanwhile, Assistant Forest Officer Thir Prasad Koirala said an investigation is underway.
On February 25, 2022, the residents of Godavari-9 saw trees being cut down and land cleared in the forest area near Humath.
Later, it was found out that Vinod Humagain and Ghanshyam Karki of the same village had called in a backhoe loader to clear the forest and build an access road to their plot of land which they intended to sell after parcelling it off.
“They destroyed the forest all night long!” Nanimaya Thapa, a resident, says, ” I saw the forest when I went to mow the grass in the morning. I also saw the forest in the evening, but it wasn’t there in the morning.”
Residents have complained to the Division Forest Office, Lalitpur, demanding action against them.
Wards 1 and 14 of Godavari Municipality are separated by the Godavari river. These days, the river is shrinking. Gunjaman Shrestha, a resident, says, ” No one listens to us until the floodwaters enter the settlement.”
According to Shrestha, Ram Sundar Thapa, who was parcelling off 23 ropanis of land, had to leave 10 metres left and right of the river. But they didn’t do so and encroached upon the river’s right of way.
The tomb raiders
The land mafia has arrived in Godavari Municipality of Lalitpur after clearing all possible plots of land in the urban areas of the Kathmandu Valley. Due to indiscriminate parcelling off of the land, the arable land of the city, public land, and even the forest have encroached.
To connect the land with the main road, roads have been constructed even on public land and forests. While a limited number of businessmen benefit from this, settlements and communities are being affected.
In Godavari’s Chapagaun, land traders have erected a retaining wall blocking the area’s irrigation canal. Irrigation facilities have been disrupted from Charghare to Sunakothi posing a big problem for farmers.
There are 300 households of Tamangs in Shanti Ban Basti of Godavari-3. Just below the settlement lies the burial place of this community. According to Mahendra Tamang, a resident, the land mafia is even targeting the area.
According to Tamang, after widespread protests, the land dealer parcelled off the land around the grave. “Still, they are trying to use greed and fear to get the villagers to allow them to parcel off the land,” said Shanti Tamang, a resident of the settlement.
Maiya Rawat, 50, of Godavari-10 Sangrila Tol is a heart patient. Even though the doctor told him to avoid the smoke and dust, the dust coming from the use of heavy machinery near her house has exacerbated her ailment. “Day and night heavy machinery emit dust and make the settlement dirty,” says Rawat.
Kumari Ghimire, 32, a resident of the same settlement, said that even when the house is washed clean, it is covered with dust the next day. “Vegetables don’t grow in the fields because of the dust, ” she says. “One can only imagine the effects on human health!”
The city council declared the five wards of the municipality as agricultural pocket areas due to the high productivity of the land. But ironically, backhoe loaders now operate on fertile land. Kalpana Karki, head of the agriculture division of the municipality, says, ” If the parcelling continues at this pace, there will be no land to cultivate here after a year.”
Arjun Thokar, chairman of the group, alleged that a group parcelling off 17 ropanis of land in the name of setting up an agricultural farm in Godavari-6, Ashchaur, has also encroached on the land of Damsidol Community forest. According to Thokar, representatives of the local administration, division forest office, and survey office found that some part of the forest had been encroached upon.
Raghu Khadka, another resident, says, “ The road to the forest has been dug, there is mud and dust everywhere. It has become difficult to make hay and firewood.”
As of December, the municipality has issued permits to parcel off the land in 53 locations this fiscal year. Last year, the number was 27. The three years before that the number was 10, 26 and 1 respectively. In some places, the land is being parcelled off without the permission of the local government.
People’s representatives silent
The Local Government Operation Act authorises local governments to protect public land and property. But despite encroachments on public land, property, and forest areas, the local government hasn’t done anything. In some places, even the people’s representatives and employees have been seen to be taking part in illegal activities.
Local-level people’s representatives and employees are involved in certifying the boundaries of plots of land being parcelled off. The ward chair has to sign the certificate after a ward member and a resident recommends him/her to do so. However, a land trader says the people’s representatives ask for a large sum of money and do their work without going to the field.
Land traders in Godavari-6, Bhurungchuli have encroached on the community forest.
“They ask for money even when we want to level our land,” says the businessman. He has claimed that the committee formed under the coordination of the deputy mayor will negotiate again after their application reaches the municipal office.
Mayor Gajendra Maharjan claims that not a single permit has been issued to anyone to parcel off the land. He says, “We have not permitted anyone to parcel off the land. It is only given to build a house after clearing the land. The municipality is not the body to authorize the parcelling off of the land.”
The group that is parcelling off the land in most places in Godavari municipality belongs to Hira Sitaula and Subas Pathak. The group has worked in Bajrabarahi, Bishtachhap, Kitni , Badikhel, Paudol and Jharuwaarasi. The same group is also working on Lele’s Multidanda and Kanakasundari.
“Our biggest plot of land is 42 ropanis in Godavari,” said Hira Sitaula over the telephone conversation. We have done all our work after receiving permission from the municipality. We don’t have records of how many plots of land we have worked on.”
Deputy Mayor Muna Adhikari claims that even though she has been appointed as the coordinator of the committee to oversee the levelling of land, the committee is not functional. “Even though I have been appointed as the coordinator, I have not been given any authority,” she said. However, we obtained papers to show that a meeting of the committee was convened by the deputy mayor’s office to allow land traders to parcel off the land in the municipality.
Praveen Koirala, administrative officer of the municipality, also claims that the issuance of permits has completely been halted after his arrival. “It is necessary to amend the working procedure as there is rampant parcelling off of the land in the city. We have banned such activities until then, ” he says.
Provisions related to the parcelling off of land have been mentioned in decision No. 3 of the municipal council of the municipality held on January 24, 2022. The decision says that the ward office after receiving the prescribed fees can allow land up to two ropanis to be levelled. But if the area exceeds two ropanis, the mayor would need to issue permission. Such work can only be done on land less than 50 ropanis.
Stepping on this decision, the Kamal Negi-Rabi Maharjan group started parcelling off 40 ropanis of land in Ward No.10 Muldol. According to the residents, back-hoe loaders were used on public lands, and trees were felled in community forests. “There was no one to stop them, no action was taken,” said Subash Gole, a resident.
The largest piece of land that has been parcelled off, lies in Muldol area within Godavari municipality, where Kamal Negi-Ravi Maharjan group is active. Similarly, locals say that Radhe Shyam Maharjan, sister-in-law of Mayor Gajendra Maharjan, is also involved in the plotting being carried out by a group-led Babukaji Maharjan.
The municipality hasn’t done anything even as canals used to irrigatie thousands of hectares of land in Charghare, Chapagaun, Thecho to Sunakothi have been obstructed. Ashok Dulal of Chapagaun says, “ I have a farm fed by a canal. The land traders buried the canal.”
The municipality issued a procedure last year to make it compulsory for businesses and individuals developing new settlements to leave at least 10 percent of the land vacant and hand over the ownership of such plots of land to the government. But the decision is yet to be implemented.
No.2 of the procedure says that the main objective of the document is to manage arable land, conserve public property and promote planned settlements. But the procedure hasn’t been followed, officials from the municipality admit.
“Our procedure looks good on paper. But as it’s not implemented, it’s of no use,” said a member of the municipality’s monitoring committee. A committee formed under the leadership of the deputy mayor is fuelling the illegal parcelling off of land, it has been alleged.
Public budget furthers private business interests
To reach Muldol, where land is being parcelled off in more than 20 locations, one has to go downhill from Tahakhel Chautara to Khajuri. Currently, the road leading downhill to Khajuri is being concretised. Apart from the land traders, no one will benefit from this paved road being built with the investment of the local and provincial governments. Ward Chairman Darshan Bista says that the ward office is investing Rs.1 million and the provincial government Rs3 million on the road.
The provincial government and the local government have assisted to build access roads to the Namuna Basti being built on parcelled off land near Bajrabarahi of Ward No. 10. In an area with only one house, a water tank with a capacity of 250,000 litres and two deep boreholes have been constructed utilising Rs 15 million from the provincial government.
Plot of land being levelled in Godavari-10, Muldol
According to Kewal Sanjel, a businessman, the municipality has allocated Rs 540,00 to build a 3-km access road to the area. He said that the government is expanding a three-phase powerline to the area to supply electricity to the new settlement.
Complaints are lodged, but no action is taken
Locals approached the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) saying that their house was at risk of landslide due to illegal parcelling off of agricultural land in Ward No. 13 of the city.
The commission wrote to the municipality on the issue on September 28, 2021, asking it to take the necessary action as per the law. It also ordered the ward office not to allow parcelling off of the land without permission from the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority. Following the receipt of the letter, the municipality sent copies of the document to its wards ordering them to follow the instructions.
But the letter has did not affect the municipalities’ officials. However, the CIAA has ordered the municipality to submit files related to the case, said Bed Prasad Bhandari, joint spokesperson for the commission. “The commission is investigating cases of illegal parcelling off of the land in Godavari municipality.”
The Lalitpur District Commissioner’s Office under the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority issued a notice to land traders parcelling off plots in 73 locations of Mahalaxmi, Lalitpur and Godavari municipalities asking them to contact the office within seven days. In its notice dated February 11, the office said 31 plots of land (from 3 to 52 ropanis) in Godavari were being parcelled off without permission. The office said public land was also being misused by the traders.
The office wrote to the land reforms office, Lagankhel to freeze the land deeds of those involved in illegal parcelling off of the land. Commissioner Jagdish Lamichhane says, “We are the only authority to issue permits to parcel off the land. If any other office is doing so, it is illegal.”
