“The taskforce will basically recommend compensation amount to the land owners, particularly on the basis of years they held the land,” said Purna Kaderia, secretary at Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW). [break]
“It will also recommend measures to address other concerns of the locals.”
The taskforce headed by a senior MoPPW official will include former justice, administrators and experts as members.
“We have already finalized its mandate and soon forwarding the same to the cabinet for approval,” said Kaderia.
The ministry started preparation to form the taskforce after the land owners started demanding huge compensation amount. Some people in other sections of the road like Khokana of Lalitpur and Ipa Amchaur and Sisneri VDCs of Makwanpur have even refused to pledge their land, saying that big infrastructure projects would pose serious threat to the identity of the historic place. They have brought the process of land measurement in 3 km section of the 18 km stretch in Ipa and Amchour VDCs to a halt.
Such resistance from the locals, meanwhile, has affected the land acquisition process and also the process of selecting contractor for the construction of the much-touted project.
“Worse is; UCPN (Maoist), the political party that talks much about unhindered implementation of development projects, has led the people in obstructing the land acquisition,” a ministry official said.
The government has allocated Rs 350 million for land acquisition for the 75-km express highway in the current fiscal year. It has also set aside Rs 325 million to open the track, which is to be completed by Nepal Army. For the construction, the government is acquiring a total of 140 bighas of land in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Makwanpur and Bara districts.
“Interestingly, the demand for huge compensation is coming from people who procured the land in the last one and a half years. And their unfair demand is threatening to delay the overall development works, depriving indigenous residents from reaping the opportunities and benefits of development,” the official said.
Unreasonable demands hit development
Unfortunately, the fast track project is not the sole case that is facing the problems of undue demands of ´new owners´. Such tendency, mostly led by a small but influential group of benefit seekers, has slowed and hit almost all development projects, echoed officials of Ministry of Finance and MoPPW.
“These influential groups enjoy easy access to government´s development plans, rush to buy the land plots along the project site and then demand huge compensation. This trend has grown quite dangerously and is threatening to derail the country´s development initiatives,” said Finance Minister Surendra Pandey.
Reports of MOPPW say that these groups mobilize locals, mainly political leaders of most influential party in the locality, and place compensation demands of as high as six-fold of (pre-project) actual prices.
Although the MoPPW is currently mobilizing its staffers to deal with the locals and acquire the land, it has of late started demanding the government to address this burgeoning problem through policy announcement and at the political level.
Mainly, the ministry has been saying that the government should freeze land in the alignment area prior to the announcement of the project to ensure smooth land acquisition.
“This has become much necessary to prevent infiltration of ´undue benefit seekers´. Otherwise, implementing the development projects on time will be impossible,” said the source.
Related story
Compensation fixed for hydel project-affected households
-1200x560_20210819165745.jpg)
