Twelve families were moved to the government land by Landless People´s Problem Solving Committee of Baglung in 1994 as a measure to provide them immediate relief. The move had raised hopes among the squatters that they would eventually be provided land owner certificate on the land. [break]
But 15 years later, they still don´t have the land owner certificate and without it, they cannot obtain basic utilities.
"At that time, we were settled on 8 ropanis of land under as immediate relief measure. Hoping they would hand over the land ownership certificates to us, we managed to settle in two storage buildings on the land, but we still don´t have the ownership document," said Jhankanath Lamichane, one of the resettled squatters.
Lamichane said since they don´t possess the land ownership certificate they are perceived as landless people which had created hurdles for them to live in a community as a unit.
The whole resettlement procedure was implemented under the leadership of the then chairman of the landless committee Mohan Lal Sharma, said Lamichane.
Explaining the reason behind the problem, former member of the committee Hariram Adhikari, said they were able to relocate the families to a new settlement, but the process of distributing the land ownership certificate was disrupted due to the political instability at that time.
"We tried reaching out to the concerns authorities and ministries but they never took the issue seriously," said Lamichane.
Living on minor works, these families shared concerns over their present uncertain livelihood. "We would have a strong reason to live if we had the land ownership certificates. We can´t leave this place as we do not any other places to go," said Iwaem Miya, one of the squatters. "Since we don´t have the required legal papers, we have been bereft of electricity in our houses as well," she added.
According to Saliram Acharya, Chief of Baglung District Land Revenue Office, they are unable to solve the problem since the committee is not in operation in the district anymore.
"They are living on government land for years and their files have been left untouched. This problem should be solved from the cabinet level," recommended Acharya.
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