Suspicious land deals under govt scanner

KATHMANDU, Oct 6: Following the revelation of unsuccessful attempts by land sharks to take control of public and private land worth Rs 13.5 billion in different parts of the capital, the government has decided to carry out investigation into the possible cases of similar natures in and outside the capital.



Five separate teams formed by the Ministry of Land Reforms and Management (MoLRM) to look into the issue have found 181 land plots of suspicious nature at Chabahil, Kalanki, Dillibazar, Patan and Bhaktapur Land Revenue Offices (LROs).[break]



Responding to the report submitted by the teams, the MoLRM Tuesday issued a 35-point directives to the Department of Land Management (DoLM) asking it to carry out investigation on possible manipulation of land registrations in districts out of the Valley as well.



A source at the MoLRM informed Republica that the teams found 44 suspicious transactions at Chabahil LRO, 16 in Bhaktapur LRO, 73 in Dillibazar LRO, 2 in Kalanki LRO and 46 in Lalitpur LRO. These transactions involve land plots ranging from 4 anas to 505 ropanis.



“We have directed DoLM to look into possible fraudulent activities in land registration in the districts outside the Valley and submit reports within 15 days,” a highly placed source at MoLRM told Republica.



As per the suggestions of the probe teams, the ministry has also directed DoLM to make it mandatory for LROs and Survey Office (SO) to ascertain the status of land - whether it is privately owned or public - by chiefs of both the offices to prevent registration of government land to private institutions or persons.



“Land registration process will move ahead only if chiefs of both the offices are convinced that said plot is not under government ownership. The new provision will discourage the trend of transferring the ownership of public land into private hands,” the source added.



The ministry has also directed DoLM to modernize LRO management system, protect documents of land registrations, provide fieldbook only on the request of officer-level staff of SO and also make compulsory provision to put record of land transactions at both LRO and SO.



About one and a half months ago, the government unearthed well-designed schemes by land dealers to take control of 23 public and private housing plots worth around Rs 13 billion by manipulating fieldbooks at Chabahil LRO. However, the police have yet to take action against the persons involved in the crime.



MoLRM had handed over the case along with he names of the culprits to Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu on August 20, as soon as it foiled their attempts to take control of over 800 ropanis (100 acres) of land in the north-eastern parts of the Valley.

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