A meeting of the High Level Taskforce formed to resolve contentious issues in the constitution drafting process ended inconclusively on Wednesday after the UCPN (Maoist) and Nepal Workers´ and Peasants Party (NWPP) turned down other parties´ proposal to provide compensation to such land owners. Various parties including Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, Madhesi People´s Rights Forum and Tarai Madhes Democratic Party had proposed compensation to landlords whose land the government acquires.[break]
The meeting of the Task Force ended inconclusively even on Tuesday as the Maoist demanded that the government be empowered to acquire land beyond the ceiling determined by the government. Parties also differed on the question of whether to call land reforms ´scientific´ or ´revolutionary´ in the new constitution.
Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, NWPP Chairman Narayanman Bijukchhe said they could not reach consensus as political parties representing the elite class did not want to introduce land reforms. He argued that compensation to those who owned land beyond the ceiling fixed by the government would distort the entire meaning of land reforms.
Likewise, Madhes-based parties argued that the existing 11 bigha ceiling on land holdings should be kept intact in the proposed land reforms program.
A member of the Task Force and Co-Chairman of Sadbhawana Party Laxman Lal Karna said that land reforms should also incorporate measures that will increase agricultural productivity. "Though rights can be given to the farmers tilling the land, they cannot be given tenancy rights," he said.
Maoist Task Force member Dev Gurung said they must opt for ´revolutionary land reforms´ in order to end the feudal land ownership system existing in the country.
Taskforce meeting deferred
The taskforce meeting has been postponed till December 1 owing to the extended plenum of the Maoists scheduled to begin from November 21.
According to a taskforce member and Law Minister Prem Bahadur Singh, the taskforce meeting has been postponed for two weeks as the taskforce coordinator and other Maoist members will remain busy in their party´s extended plenum. The term of the taskforce, extended for the second time after it was formed on October 11, will expire on December 11.
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