Wholesome Reforms

FOLLOWING the landmark announcement by the government to introduce land reforms it is but natural that a public debate has surfaced on the various facets of hoped-for and proposed land reforms. Not surprisingly, voices of differences are being heard from some quarters following the announcement that banned the buying, selling and transfer of lands pending the fixing of land ceiling. But politically speaking, the government is on pretty firm ground, having received an unequivocal support from the main Opposition in the House of Representatives, Communist Party of Nepal (UML). This support was repeated by a central member speaking at an interaction on Tuesday where Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Mahesh Acharya also tried to put the proposed land reforms in its true perspective. He emphasised that the progressive and reforms programme was not an exclusive agenda of a certain political party but was a means of bringing about social and economic transformation in the country. The fact that the largest Opposition party has solidly backed the government in this venture proves it quite categorically that such a move was most welcome. Indeed, political parties over the years have made strident calls for drastic land reforms, the reason being that without appropriate land reforms most Nepalese would continue to languish in poverty and backwardness.

Even though agriculture accounts for livelihood for over 80 per cent of the population, lack of land reforms has meant that most people are forced to just eke out a livelihood somehow with great hardships. Every successive government of the past did promise land reforms, but action was not forthcoming. The long awaited land reforms, depending on how comprehensive and pro-poor they would be, have the potentials to change for the better the socio-economic face of the country. But land reforms are much more than just fixing a land ceiling. As rightly pointed out by Minister Acharya the programme has to aim at putting in place a scientific, modern and planned land use practice. The government has to implement a scheme that pushes for structural and technical reforms in an all-inclusive manner. Only a wholesome package of reforms would spawn benefits for the multitude of poor Nepalese. When reforms are reliably set and other necessary economic interventions are introduced, the process of lifting millions of Nepalese out of the poverty trap would genuinely start.

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