The victims, who are originally from Ramauli of Manahari and Pratappur VDCs, have been settled in the Godam forests but they did not all receive equal plots of land, according to Nilambar Mishra, chief of a committee formed to organise protests over the issue.
"We started investigations and re-measured the different plots after receiving numerous complaints from locals. To our surprise, the distribution of land was found to have been done haphazardly," said Mishra. "We have given three days to the survey office chief to verify the land deeds," he added.
As per the report of the committee, 11 victims have been granted excessive plots.
"Krishna Bahadur Sapkota has received 13 katta of land when he should have gotten only 2 katta, and Laxman Rai has been given around 15 katta. There are numerous such cases which need to be explained," said Mishra.
Commenting on the issue, Regional Forest Director Rajdev Prasad Yadav said that the excessive plots must be redistributed to benefit locals who have been short-changed. The measurement of the land was conducted by a team under surveyor Ramchandra Chowdhary.
According to member of the committee Nawaraj Bista, the blame for the current conflict can be laid at the doors of officials who conducted the survey.
"To be frank, this looks more like an intentional act as the number of mistakes is considerably high," said Bista.
A different survey team deployed by the committee conducted land measurements on Thursday.
"We are trying to readjust the distributed plots," Bista said.
The government had decided to resettle all the victims in the forest in 2009 after coming under pressure from the victims.
Among 360 households affected, only 30 have not received land but they will do so by the end of July, informed Bista.
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