Thakur Prasad Dhakal, the mayor of Madi Municipality, has made a mockery of rule of law and public mandate—renting out public land and allowing plotting in arable land.
Pratima Silwal | CIJ, Nepal
On the morning of June 1, a man reached the office of Madi Municipality with a government minute. The minute was related to the “Technical committee on analysis of land utility”, which was chaired by Baburam Jaisi, chief of Land Revenue Office, Madi. The man was not an official at the municipality office.
The minute, dated May 19, was “sent by the mayor for signature”, and was related to a decision responding to a request from a company dealing in land plotting. It carried the names of Mayor Jaisi, Lal Bahadur Gurung, chief of Land Revenue Office, Madi, Ram Prasad Tiwari, chair of Baghauda Central Consumers’ Committee, Kiran Prasad Upadhyay, chief of agriculture department at Madi Municipality, and the municipality’s engineer Yubaraj Mahato.
The decision said that a total of 40 bigaha land belonging to Madi Municipality’s ward 3 would be provided for plotting out of its 131 kitta land to Twenty One Group Property Dealers Pvt. Ltd. The minute included other decisions too: permission to the sale of plotted land including construction of a three-star hotel in two bigaha land within two years; construction of a well-facilitated part and handing it over to the municipality; and construction of dams on either sides of the Mugui River.
(A copy of the minute.)
But Kiran Prasad Upadhyay, chief of the municipality’s agriculture department, refused to sign the minute, citing procedural shortcoming. Then Mayor Thakur Prasad Dhakal pressured him to sign it. “I was not present at the committee’s meeting and I was not officially aware of it,” Upadhyay says. “Hence I didn’t sign it.” Upadhyay adds that the decision was against the municipality’s policy to not plot arable land.
The municipality has a provision where its planning officer would be the member-secretary of the committee. But the decision, which bypassed the municipality’s policy, wouldn’t be signed by Rabi Shankar Shah, the planning officer, either.
Minute striking out Yuvraj’s signature after he had already signed it.
According to a source, Shah, who is set to retire after four months, doesn’t want to take the blame for an unlawful decision. “Then, engineer Yubaraj Mahato was appointed as the committee’s member-secretary and he signed the document,” the source says. The Centre for Investigative Journalism tried to contact Shah to no avail.
When it appeared that the minute wouldn’t be signed by all members of the committee, the mayor immediately retrieved it.
When the decision of that meeting was made public, the municipality’s chief administrative officer Arjun Gautam was at his office. But the decision was taken before Gautam assumed office. And as such, Gautam expresses his ignorance about the decision since it was taken before his incumbency and that documents relating to the land plotting are not at his office.
“The municipality doesn’t have any document relating to that meeting of the committee,” Gautam told CIJ. “I am unaware of the decision.”
Mayor Dhakal is also a central level leader of CPN Maoist (Centre). When rumours floated that Dhakal had taken the decision to pursue his personal interests, the Maoist (Centre) realized that it’d taint the whole party and hence issued a statement on June 2.
The statement, undersigned by Dandapani Poudel and Prabhu Prasad Mahato, incharge and chief of Maoist (Centre), Madi, respectively, mentions that the land revenue office and survey department had colluded for land plotting. (See the statement.)
A statement released by the Maoist (Center) after government officials refused to sign the minute pertaining to land plotting.
After the municipality’s officials refused to sign the minute that sought to embezzle millions of rupees, Mayor Dhakal has now tried to save his grace, issuing a statement on his Facebook account.
He has acknowledged the concerns of political parties in the decision that sought to turn arable land to plottings and said that the municipality has a “clear policy” against such move.
Dhakal also claimed that the issue of land plotting was not discussed in the committee of which he is the coordinator. But he has still revealed some crucial details on recommendation on plotting and agreement in a roundabout way. “I draw the attention of stakeholders on the provisions of the decision taken two years ago,” he says in the statement.
(See: the statement and Dhakal’s Facebook status.)
After which, Dhakal urges the reality of the unlawful attempt at plotting the lands be made public, noting that almost all of the political parties active in Madi have issued statements of concern.
(See: Statement 1, from CPN (UML); 2, Nepali Congress; and 3, CPN (Maoist) Biplav group.)
The rise of the trend of plotting arable lands
This is not the first instance where Dhakal was involved in unlawful plotting of arable lands. Prior to this, unlawful plotting was recommended in collusion of the mayor, office of land revenue and survey department officials. On November 14, 2019, the Twenty One Group Property Dealers was provided permission to plot the 39 kitta (16 bigaha one kattha two dhur) land at Madi-3. While the municipality had pricetagged Rs200, 000 to Rs300, 000 as minimum amount for one kattha land, the Twenty One Group has advertised it at Rs 775,000. Even though the area of the advertised piece of land is not mentioned, such plots tend to be normally up to 15 dhur in area.
(See: the recommendation of minimum price and the advertised video.)
On November 12, 2019, Mayor Dhakal recommended it responding to a request from the Twenty One Group without a decision from the Land Utility Examination and Recommendation Direction Committee.
Not only that, the municipality had permitted the plotting of 12 bigaha five kattha land on April 18, 2019, and nine bigaha 11 kattha and one dhur land on December 30 that same year. According to Bibek Tiwari, information officer at the land revenue office, his office has already handed over the revenue of the land to the municipality after the land’s ownership was transferred.
But Prabin Bhandari, information officer at the municipality, claims that the details of those permissions are not in the municipality’s record.
When CIJ requested copies of recommendations issued by the city executive for plottings, only one copy was available. Bhandari informed that no other record of recommendation was at the office, even though the municipality had recommended plotting of the public land to the Land Revenue Office three times.
After its second city council meeting, the annual planning of the municipality reads, “Plotting of the arable land will be completely discouraged and efforts will be made to construct an underground irrigation network… unlawful plotting of land will be punished.”
The August 10, 2017 decision of the federal cabinet has also put a ban on the plotting of arable land. The Ministry for Land Reform and Management has also directed all local units to stop plotting arable lands.
Following that directive, it was found that Kathmandu metropolis had recommended plotting of land for the “smart city” project, after which the ministry once again released a circular on March 1, 2021 to stop it until another decision was taken.
(See: the directive and circular.)
But boycotting all these policies and directive, Madi Municipality recommended plotting to the land revenue office, Madi thrice in 2019.
Tiwari, the information officer at land revenue office, says that his office proceeded on the municipality’s recommendation which followed a meeting of a technical committee. After the sale of the plotted land, both his office and municipality have already received a revenue amount.
After permitting plotting, the Madi Municipality appears to have received Rs2,94,000 in revenue for the 14 bigaha 14 kattha land located at the then Baghauda VDC-2 from Twenty One Group on December 31, 2019.
Despite the ban on plotting of arable land from the federal cabinet and Madi city council, Mayor Dhakal has formed a technical committee and a recommendation committee for land evaluation.
Dhakal claims that the formation of committees was under the fifth point of a circular issued by the then Ministry of Land Reform and Management following a cabinet decision on August 10, 2017. That particular point of the circular states that an organization, firm, or company can proceed to plot the land only after the land in question is vetted thoroughly for its utility by an analysis committee comprising technicians with expertise in agriculture, forestry, survey, land administration and urban development.
Statement from CPN (UML); 2, Nepali Congress; and 3, CPN (Maoist) Biplav group.)
But Mayor Dhakal has formed a committee that favours him and granted permission to plot arable land as well. According to a municipality source, the committee doesn’t have any experts or stakeholders. While all the land falls on the buffer zone at Chitwan National Park, the municipality has not coordinated with the Park either. According to Lokendra Adhikari, information officer at the Park, the authority should inform the park in advance before land that is connected or bordering the Park is to be sold or rented out, but the municipality has not coordinated yet.
Renting public land to relatives
According to Local Government Operation Act 2074’s clause 97 (2), the municipality or rural municipality cannot sell, lease out or hand over public land within their jurisdiction.
Madi Municipality, however, has rented out public land in six places to either the mayor’s relatives or those faithful to his party. There have been numerous agreements to rent out the room for up to 49 years. Moreover, the agreements include clauses that neither mention the area of the land nor the rent amount.
It has been agreed that the 200 hectare land at ward 9 will be rented out to Unified Agriculture Forest Development Pvt. Ltd., and the 20 bigaha land at the same ward will be rented out to K and P Aquafirm Centre.
Likewise, about 200 bigaha land at ward 1 is being rented out to Mount Annapurna Group Pvt. Ltd., without even measuring it. The agreement mentions that the contract will be renewed every five year and only a rough boundary is revealed. That same group rented out seven bigaha land at the same ward for five years. Moreover, about 70 bigaha land is agreed to be rented out to Agritech Multinational Pvt Ltd without even fixing the rent amount.
Land to businessmen, job to son
In April 2019, a team of non-residential Nepalis reached Madi to “develop agro tourism” in the region. The team met with Mayor Dhakal repeatedly and presented a plan to construct a well-facilitated resort and a garden that would draw revenue for the municipality too.
Circular issued by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation’s Survey Department requesting all surveys offices in the country to stop land plotting.
According to which, Gokarna Prasad Shrestha, chair of NRNA Partners Pvt Ltd, and his team reached Mugui River’s eastern belt to observe the public land. The 50 bigaha land located at ward 5 serves as a playground and hangout spot for the locals.
Mayor Dhakal reached an agreement with Shrestha to rent out the land for 49 years at Rs1,000 per kattha per year. Before the agreement, they had also discussed the matter with ward chair Rambandhu Pokhrel and a few other local leaders.
The area of the land was never measured; the NRNA Partners would pay the rent for 30 bigaha land according to an agreement on August 29, 2019; later the agreement was amended, on July 26, 2020, to reduce the rent duration to 35 years. But it is unlawful to rent out public land for over 30 years, as per the latest act to rent out public land.
Mayor Dhakal’s son, Lekhnath Dhakal, has been appointed as Field Supervisor at the project supposed to develop agro tourism. The 250million rupees project has so far constructed three blocks and three borings, according to Tuk Narayan Poudel, field manager at the project.
The land was being agreed to be rented out from December 17, 2019, and the project was inaugurated by then chair of Communist Party of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal on January 14, 2020.
Twenty bigaha land to nephew
Another 20 bigaha land at Madi-9 is being rented out to K and P Aquaculture Centre for 49 years. The Centre’s proprietor, Purushottam Bhandari, is Mayor Dhakal’s nephew.
(Video advertisement of Twenty One Group)
On April 19, 2019, the city executive’s meeting decided to rent the land to K and P Aquafarm Center, Madi according to private-public partnership. According to that decision, Mayor Dhakal has not yet signed the agreement done on November 5, 2019. Dhakal has instead asked then chief administrative officer Haridatta Kandel to sign the decision. Dhakal’s nephew and proprietor Bhandari had signed on behalf of the Centre.
Nine people, including deputy mayor Tarakaji Mahato and chair of ward 9 Shivahari Subedi, have assumed the role of witnesses to the agreement.
The agreement states that the land was rented at Rs1,000 per kattha for development of agro tourism, rural tourism and professional agriculture according to Local Unit Operation Act 2074’s clause 97 (2).
Bhandari, the Centre’s proprietor, says that the agreement fulfils legal criteria and is rented for 49 years. The centre is preparing to launch an aquafarm at 15 bigaha land, he informed. “We rented the land to expand our aquafarm business,” Bhandari says.
The Park issue
On March 6, 2021, Chitwan National Park’s police personnel arrested Mayor Dhakal along with contractor Suresh Prasai after an excavator started digging up a pond at the Park’s buffer zone. The reason for their arrest was the agreement between the municipality and Unified Agricultural Forest Development Pvt Ltd. The municipality had agreed to rent the 200 hectare land that falls on the buffer zone to the Forest Development Pvt Ltd for 49 years.
Thakur Prasad Dhakal, Mayor, Madi Municipality
The agreement was overseen by Mayor Dhakal and was undersigned by then CDO Kandel and Suresh Prasai, chair of the Forest Development Pvt Ltd. The foundation of that agreement was the 23 October 2019 meeting of the city executive where it decided to rent the land surrounding the river. The decision was against the Local Government Operation Act, 2074, but consisted of signatures of all members of the city executive.
The agreement between the municipality and Unified Agricultural Forest Development Pvt Ltd was based on the same decision. The agreement, which decided to rent the land from fiscal year 2019-20 at up to three percent tax discount, is overseen by Mayor Dhakal and Gyan Govinda Baidya, managing director of the Forest Development Pvt Ltd. Likewise, Madi’s deputy mayor Tarakaji Mahato and Shivahari Subedi, chair of ward 9, where the land is based, have signed as witnesses to the agreement.
The agreement mentions that the rent, at the rate of Rs1000 per kattha per year, would increase by 10 percent after every three years. The Park knew of the November 10, 2019 agreement only after the excavator began to operate on March 6 2020.
Even though 22 people, including Mayor Dhakal, were released on bail after their arrest, they are still facing the court. According to the Park’s information officer Lokendra Adhikari, it has also launched a case against Suresh Prasai, chair of the Forest Development Pvt Ltd, and managing director Gyan Govinda Baidya.
The agreement is cancelled: Mayor
After the Park launched the case, the municipality decided to cancel the agreement with the Forest Development Pvt Ltd. According to a municipality source, Dhakal revoked the agreement on September 23, 2020 fearing that if he were to be penalized by court, his political career would be over.
“The agreement was not revoked before the case was filed,” says an official from the municipality on conditions of anonymity. “The decision was made after they were released on bail.” The official further said that the date of the meeting that revoked the agreement might have been forged. Indeed if the agreement was revoked in September, 2020, then no excavator would dig up the pond in March, 2021.
The chair of ward 1, Krishna Poudel, said he is unaware of his own municipality’s executive meeting and for that matter, of the revoking of the agreement. He claimed that the executive meeting of the municipality has not even received a proposal on land plotting, renting and revoking of the agreement yet.
“No such proposal has been floated in the meeting yet,” said Poudel. “We are asked to sign our attendance and unlawful decisions are made in the night.”
He said that he had spoken against Mayor Dhakal’s autocratic antics repeatedly and had been derided at the mayor’s hand.
According to Madi’s information officer Prabin Bhandari, even though the agreement with Forest Development Pvt Ltd is revoked, other five rental agreements are still in place.
But Mayor Dhakal claims that all the unlawful agreements have been revoked.
Madi locals have also protested against the unlawful agreements to rent and plot the lands. Sanjay Dhakal, a local, accuses the mayor of prioritizing personal and political gains while unlawfully renting and plotting the lands.
“Even the land that served as playground, hangout and grazing land has been unlawfully rented out,” Dhakal says. “We will no longer stay silent about the mayor’s antics.” He further accused the mayor of turning a deaf ear to the locals’ concerns.
According to the 2020 circular issued by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperative and Poverty Reduction, public land can’t be rented out to private firms. It can only be provided to public institutions under a CDO-chaired committee’s recommendation. But Chitwan’s CDO is unaware of all these agreements made over the years by the municipality.
“I am unaware of the issue of public lands being leased out,” Premlal Lamichhane, Chitwan’s CDO, told CIJ. “Though if you have any related documents, please make it available to us. I will take up the matter with the concerned local unit.”
