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Kathmandu Friday October 12, 2001 Ashwin 26, 2058.
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The land bill The Parliamentary
Natural Resources and Means Committee (NRMC) has finally pushed through the
fifth amendment bill to the Land Reforms Act of 1964. Today, the bill witnesses debate on
the floor of Parliament. Once the bill is enacted into law, the government will undertake
a major land reform programme since the restoration of democracy. In 1964 the late King
Mahendra initiated a radical plan that brought changes in land holdings across the
country. The Land Act of 1964 secured tenancy rights for those who had been cultivating
land for absentee landlords. This provision led to over one million land tillers obtaining
tenancy rights. This however led to the creation of virtually dual control over land.
Besides, the mass migration of people within the country - as a result of political change
and poverty - greatly hindered the land reform programme. The government, which
implemented the Land Act of 1964, also turned out to be less effective than envisaged. The
land owners in many agriculturally fertile areas did not allow tenants to farm their land,
lest the tillers establish a claim to tenancy rights. Feudal elements left their land
barren rather than giving it out to cultivation by tenants. This conflict of interest
between land owners and tenants created major obstacles in the optimum utilization of
land. It took the 1996 amendment to the Land Act 1964 to bring an end to dual ownership
although the full effect of this has yet to be implemented.
The bill that now awaits the final nod in Parliament has generated more
controversy than solution. The Tarai-based Nepal Sadhbhawana Party (NSP) and Rastriya
Prajatantra Party (RPP) have opposed it ever since Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba
announced that the country would see a radical land reform programme. They even disrupted
the 20th session of Parliament for a few days. The NSP and RPP wanted to introduce new
provisions on the land ownership ceiling especially in the tarai. The proposed land bill
sets the land ownership ceiling at thirty ropanies in Kathmandu valley, eleven bighas in
the tarai and seventy five ropanies in the remaining hilly region. The bill, despite
protests by the NSP and RPP, is expected to get through Parliament as the NC commands a
clear majority. The proposed bill does not contain any change for the guthis and trusts,
or tillers or farmers who work the land owned by absentee landlords. However, all the
amendments sought by the opposition cannot be accepted until their demands are objectively
justified. But the government must not forget that the proposed land reform bill should
address the problem of those who do not own any land. This apart, land productivity has
not increased in this country despite the amendments to the Land Act of 1964. Land
transactions, after the Prime Minister announced the radical land reform plan, have also
come to a standstill as a result of inconsistent policy on the part of the government. How
effectively the government will implement the land reform programme, once it becomes an
act still remains to be seen.
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