Committee formed to remove encroachments from Janakpur’s Guthi lands

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation has formed a nine-member implementation committee to protect Guthi lands and remove encroachments in the Greater Janakpur area, including the Ram Janaki Temple in Dhanusha.

The committee was formed to speed up the implementation of previous reports prepared for the protection and management of ponds, pond embankments, major temples, monasteries and Guthi properties located within Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City.

The committee is led by Guthi Administrator at the Guthi Sansthan central office, Dhruva Ghimire.

Members of the committee include representatives from the District Administration Office Dhanusha, District Coordination Committee Dhanusha, Department of Land Management and Archives, Land Administration Office Dhanusha, Survey Office Dhanusha and Guthi Sansthan’s Dhanusha branch office.

According to the ministry, the committee has been assigned to identify and remove illegal encroachments from ponds, pond embankments, Ram Janaki Temple premises, other major religious sites and Guthi lands within the Greater Janakpur area.

The committee will implement recommendations from previous reports, including the High-Level Task Force report of 2005 and the Government, Public and Guthi Land Protection Investigation Commission report of 2019.

As part of the process, the committee will map encroachments around temple premises and ponds and issue a seven-day notice for voluntary removal. For other Guthi lands where houses and temporary structures have been built, occupants will be given 15 days to clear the encroached areas.

If the encroachments are not removed within the given deadline, the committee will coordinate with local administration and local governments to clear them within 15 days.

The ministry said the initiative aims to strengthen the protection and management of historically, religiously and culturally significant Guthi properties in the Greater Janakpur area by effectively implementing recommendations from previous studies and commissions.