"I am no longer happy about the government's reconstruction campaign. But I'm more worried," said Bhakta Bahadur Adhikari, one of the victims without certificate.
As he does not possess land ownership certificate, he is worried he might be denied concessional loan and subsidy promised by the government for rebuilding earthquake-damaged houses.
Adhikari's case is just a representative of such cases. Almost all the locals in the village have great enthusiasm to construct earthquake-resilient houses as per the government's plan. Nevertheless, they are worried if they will be deprived of the government incentive since they are without land ownership certificates.
In Bhedpu village, most of the houses were destroyed during the earthquake. Some of the houses which have remained intact are partially damaged as well. Earthquake victims are living in temporary shelters. Due to the increasing cold, some of them are cooking food in damaged houses.
Quake-hit locals in the village are puzzled by the requirement of the government's approval of structural design for new houses. For this, they require land ownership certificate.
Stories of people deprived of land ownership certificates are rife in all nine wards of Bhedpu VDC. During the reign of King Ran Bahadur Shah (1777 AD to 1806 AD), the Bhimeshwar Guthi was established to operate Bhimeshwar temple at Dolakha Bazaar. All the villages were kept under the Guthi.
According to local quake affected Bhakta Bahadur, although the Guthi was established to run the Bhimeshwar temple, the whole village has been registered under the Guthi.
The villagers were instructed to pay an additional 288 muris of grains for the operation of the Guthi in the 19th century besides the land revenue. This amounted to dual tax for them. They continued paying the amount until 2037 BS, after which they were unable to afford paying the additional charges demanded by the Guthi from the following year. By 2048 BS, the villagers had completely stopped paying taxes. The government's attempts to measure the land and settle the issue went in vain. Thereafter, locals have not paid tax yet.
The VDC has also not made any attempts to provide land ownership certificate to them. According to UML Dolkha vice-president Nar Bahadur Shrestha, government officials have responded to amend the existing laws in order to settle the issue of the village.
In lack of land ownership certificate, villagers have not been able to sell lands as well. "The whole village is deprived of banking and financial activities," Bishnu Bahadur Budhathoki, another local, said.
According to him, sharing of the land among family members is done as per traditional papers.
Meanwhile, former VDC Secretary Shrestha said that the government should construct the houses of quake affected people in the village based on the recommendation of the VDC itself.
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