NSP meeting focuses on various issues

Lahan, Sept. 21 (RSS): A day-long meeting of Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP) central working committee was held here Wednesday under the chairman of the party’s national chairman Gajendra Narayan Singh.

A resolution adopted by the meeting says that as the Maoist problem is a political problem stemming from social and economic factors this should be solved through dialogue on the basis of social justice.

It also suggests that the problems that cropped up between Nepal and India should be resolved through mutual co-operation and trust.

Shedding light on the decision of the meeting, the party spokesman Muktinath Mandal says, while noting that air travellers are to be allowed to travel between Nepal and India on the basis of identity cards, passports and voter’s identity cards the meeting has demanded that the government make necessary arrangement for resolving the problem of four million Nepalese who are being deprived of citizenship certificates.

Commission on landless in Banke district

Kathmandu, Sept. 21 (RSS): Minister for Land Reforms and Management and Chairman of the Landless Squatters Problem Resolution Commission Siddha Raj Ojha has constituted a nine member Banke district level Landless Squatters Problem Resolution Commission under the chairmanship of Bishnu Prasad Dawadi by exercising the powers delegated by the meeting of the commission held on Poush 9, 2056 B.S..

According to the commission, the vice chairman of the committee is Ram Dayal Sharma and members are Dol Prasad Aryal, Dibya Dev Upreti, Dhojbir B.K., Tulsi Raya Tharu, Bijaya Yadav, Ramchandra Mourya and Khalil Khan.

Altogether 65 district committees have been constituted so as to conclude the works of distributing land to the landless and haphazard settlers through the district committee within the next three years.

Record collection and other works are being carried out speedily. Arrangements have also been made to provide policy and programme directives and programme policies through the central office-bearers by undertaking on the spot inspection inorder to complete the works within the specified time.

Land of temple trust missing in Janakpur

Janakpur, Sept. 21 (RSS): Local people here have expressed grave concern over the registration in the name of individuals of land which falls under the 200-year-old Rama Temple Trust and over a continuation of this tendency till now. About 593 out of 2,876 bigah of land once in the possession of the Trust has now been lost.

According to a local Professor Dr. Pashupatinath, the King of Makwanpur, Manik Sen, donated 1,400 bigah in l784 Bikram Year and this is mentioned in a relevent document.

King Hem Karna formally demarcated the four corners of the donated land in 1790.

Then administrator Amar Singh Thapa renovated the ancient Rama temple at Janakpurdham in 1839 Bikram Year and inscribed on a copper plaque the total of 2,867 bigah of land in the name of the temple.

Out of the lands donated by kings and rulers to preserve and give continuity to the ritual traditions at the temple, about 2,274 bigah is now under the trust. But the remaining lands that could not be located and the relevent official records have also been lost, chief of the Trust Achyutnanda Pokharel said. According to him, about 188 bigah 5 kattha and 8 dhur of land has so far been spilt up and transferred to the names of relatives and disciples of priests and mendicants after paying up 30 per cent of the original value of the land as determined by the land revenue office and making out fake documents.

Priest at the Rama temple Mahanth Ram Giri corroborates this and adds, the temple has to rely on donations collected in the market place to carry out the daily religious activities.

Part of the land under the Trust with and without tenancy right liabilities has been transferred to the names of individuals after charging the money and the funds thus raised deposited in a revolving fund.

The daily activities of the temple are now being carried out with the interest accruing to the fund, the chief of Trust Pokharel said.

About 66 bigah out of 598 bigah 10 kattha and 4 dhur that fall under the ownership of Janaki temple has also been missing, it is learnt.

Part of the land of the Janaki temple has also been sold as with the land belonging to the Rama temple.

About 32 bigah that falls under Singhpur Guthi at Dhanusa, constituency No. 3, has been sold to the local rich and to officials of the locality by priest at the Janaki temple Ram Tapeswar Das.

Though the transfering of such land to the names of individuals is in contravention of the existing law, it is not a difficult process for the priest who is all in all in relation to the temple and its property.

According to him, the priest at the Janaki temple, who is required to furnish details once a year about income and expenditure at the temple run under the Ram Temple Trust, has sole authority to check and approve the temple accounts. But he has not yet furnished such details since the last three years.

The historic inscriptions on stone and copper at the Janaki temple, gold and other jewellery which used to be stored in the basement, golden water vessels installed in the temple dome and precious stones which formed two pairs of eyes for the lion figures situated to the northern side of the temple have been taken to the Hanumandhoka treasury by the central trust along with a complete record.

The youngest queen of Tikamgadh, Ganesh Kumari, who constructed the Janaki temple offered it jewellery worth millions upon completion of the construction work.

Four basements constructed inside the Janaki temple to store such articles are now covered with spider webs and water.

During a centenary function for both temples held in 2051 Bikram Year, the people participating convened a meeting and gave local people’s representatives the responsibility for bringing back the temple jewelry from the centre. But they have failed to do so.

All property in possession of both temples is said to have disappeared gradually.