NATIONAL 3 -(Spotlight Weekly)

Unreal Estate

Despite stiff opposition from different quarters, the government, with the support of the main opposition party, passes the land reform bill

By KESHAB POUDEL

The drama surrounding the government's land reform program unfolded in a manner similar to Leo Tolstoy's famous story "How Much Land Does A Man Need?" After initially backing the government's program as revolutionary step to provide surplus land to the poor and landless, the communist opposition ended up providing grudging support, calling for further reduction in ceilings.

It is not land that would meet the requirements of the poor people of one of the world's poorest countries. What they need are policies and programs that would help them gain livelihoods in other sectors as well. The experience of the last 20 years has shown that one cannot reduce poverty merely by distributing land. Nepal's communist parties, however, continue to chant cheap and populist programs without bothering whether they could work.

After the passage of the land reform bill by the lower house of parliament, the communist opposition declared that their quest to reduce the land ceiling would continue. This has sent a wrong signal across the entire economic sector. "The land reform program should be made in accordance with the high-level Badal Commission report," said MP Bharat Mohan Adhikary, chief whip of the main opposition Communist Part of Nepal Unified Marxist-Leninist.

As the majority of the country's people oppose the land reform amendment bill in its present form, claiming that it would destroy stability in the agriculture sector, the House of Representatives passed it with "critical support" from the communist opposition.

According to the new land ceiling, an individual cannot hold more than 10 bighas in the terai, 25 ropanis in Kathmandu valley and 70 ropanis in the hills. Apart from cultivated land, the ceiling also allows an individual to hold one bigha in the terai, five ropanis in Kathmandu valley and five ropanis in the hills.

Earlier, an individual could hold 28 bighas in the terai, 58 ropanis in Kathmandu valley and 96 ropanis in the hills. Whatever the arguments political parties forward, few see the possibility of collecting surplus land.

In the nearly 37 years that have passed since the implementation of first land reform program, the increase in the number of family members in almost all households has already reduced land holdings from 25 bighas to less than five bighas.

According to the survey of the Farm Size and Distribution of Cultivated Land, the percentage of the population holding 5-10 hectares of land is less than one percent. The National Agriculture Sample Census of 1998 shows a small number of people who hold such land. If the case is so, even fixing the ceiling as per the recommendation of the Badal Commission, only a small portion of surplus land could be acquired by the government.

"Whatever revolutionary land reform programs the country's major political parties bring, they cannot find any land to distribute to the common people," says Dr. Ram Prakash Yadav. "Where is the land to distribute?"

After the August 16 declaration of Prime Minister Sher Bhadur Deuba on reducing the land ceiling, Nepal's stable land sector was badly rocked, sending wrong signals to other economic areas. Despite the claims of the ruling party and the communist opposition, the so-called 'revolutionary' land bill will hardly benefit anyone. What it has achieved is to inject a feeling of instability among the people.

Although the land reforms bill has no economic sense, the ruling Nepal Congress and the communist parties have termed it as a revolutionary step. One of the basic characters of the bill is that it reduces the land ceilings in different ecological zones.

The land reform amendment bill does not have any significance in terms of economics. What it will do is give a tool to politicians to keep fooling innocent Nepalis with their cheap and populist agenda. For the people, the quest for land is no more than the costly wish of Tolstoy's main character, Pahom, who ended up getting a six-feet plot from his head to heels for burial.