Kathmandu, Sept 25: The National Land Commission, which had been in limbo since the formation of the interim government after the Gen Z protests, is now set to be scrapped. The Cabinet meeting on Sunday decided to dissolve the commission, which was last formed by the KP Oli government through an executive order in November last year. With this move, the positions of officials and staff appointed at the central and district levels are now at risk.
The government had appointed eight office bearers at the central office, including the chairperson, vice-chairperson, two expert members, and four additional members. There were also 73 staff positions at the central office. In addition, the commission had appointed 1,128 employees across all districts to handle applications, surveys, and mapping, most of them on contract. With the dissolution, all 1,444 officials and employees will lose their jobs.
The government had been spending around NPR 60 million a month on salaries for these employees, which will now be saved.
What about pending land issues?
According to Sunday’s decision, the government will make arrangements to formally dissolve the commission. A Finance Ministry statement released four days after the decision confirmed this move. Ministry officials and commission members have already accepted that the commission will no longer exist.
Uncertainty remains about what will happen to the commission’s past work and pending applications. As of the end of August, 1,151,401 applications had been registered in the commission’s online system (NALCIS) for resolution of land problems. The final deadline for submitting applications was October 18, and district offices are still updating entries, which means the number could rise, said information officer and chief survey officer Sanjiv Kumar Sah.
So far, only 8,074 land titles have been distributed, solving those specific disputes. By the end of August, surveys had been completed for 51,794.49 hectares of land, covering 313,946 plots, the commission stated.
(People’s News Monitoring Service)
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