KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation has clarified that the ban on the plotting of land was not wholly lifted yet, and it was working to streamline the plotting of land in the country.
In a press conference here Friday, the Ministry made it clear that it intended to well-organize the plotting of land across the country based on the of Land Management Act, Land Use Act and the Local Government Operation Act-2074, among others.
Ministry asserted that the current Land Use Act 2076 in Nepal had categorized the land and forbids fragmentation of the arable land. This cannot be interpreted as the government allowing plotting.
Secretary of the Ministry Tek Narayan Pandey shrugged off the accusation that the recent decision of the Ministry was in the interest of the businesspersons in real estate. He assured that it was instead in the best interest of the general public.
The government in a bid to preserve the arable land across the country had decided in the meeting of the Council of ministers in 2017 to prohibit the fragmentation of the plotting of the land without permission from the concerned authorities.
The government, then in the beginning of 2019 had announced to ease restriction enforced on plotting. But the government on September 3 decided to quash all the government decisions regarding land plotting till the proposed Regulation on the Use of Land was issued.
The new move of the government was aimed at preserving the arable land in the face of wanton and rapid urbanization.
The Ministry also expressed sorrow over the exaggerated news doing rounds in the media that the government was serving the interest of the real estate business persons and was relaxing the prohibition. It refuted the accusation against the concerned officials in the Ministry as well as the Minister.
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