December 28: Most of the districts still have only one or two land revenue offices which are not easily accessible to citizens of remote areas.

As it takes 4/5 days to go to the land revenue office, people have not been able to get the services such as buying and selling of land, transfer of property ownership, property division and getting a copy of land ownership certificate.

The service seekers who benefitted from  a seven-day mobile service run by the Land Revenue Office, Panchthar recently complained that  it takes a lot of time and money to travel from their home to the land revenue office to get the service.

Although the Department of Land Management and Archive has recently made arrangements for the local municipalities to submit online documents and applications from the municipality for the works related to real estate, the service seekers are still obliged to the Land Revenue Office to get the work done.

According to article 57 of the Constitution of Nepal 2072, the land and archive management shall be transferred to the state and local governments as per Schedule 6 of provincial jurisdiction and Schedule 8 of local level jurisdiction. However, since the government has not shown any priority in handing over the system, the local levels have started moving forward to provide real estate services to the citizens from the rural municipality.

The Tumbewa, Miklajung, Kumbayak and Hilihang rural municipalities of Panchthar district in eastern Nepal, in collaboration with the Land Revenue Office, Panchthar, conducted a seven-day camp related to land management at the municipalities.  

Baburam Pokharel, chief of the Land Revenue Officer, Panchthar, said that there is a need to provide services at the local level after observing the enthusiasm of the locals who come to the mobile service camp for getting service from their own village. 

The chairpersons of the local municipalities have been pressing for running such service desks so that the service seekers can avail the services without visiting the rural municipality. 

 “After the mobile service reached the village, the locals who could not go to the city were the first to seek the service. They are unable to come to the district headquarters for various reasons,” Pokhrel told New Business Age, “If such people benefit from having a service center at the local level and the state gets additional revenue, then there is no need to delay giving permission.”  

Pokharel said that the two municipalities would be allowed to run such desks as a pilot project and if successful, service centers could be set up at the local levels across the country. 

Spokesperson of the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Janak Raj Joshi said that the ministry is positive about the request submitted by the locals. 

“Secretary at the Ministry Ganesh Pandey has also taken the request of the rural municipality positively. However, as he is out of the country, he has not been able to hold discussions with the experts,” said Joshi, “The decision will be made after discussions with legal and land administration experts.” 

Raj Kumar Maharjan, director of information technology at the land management department, said that their application was being taken positively as it was not technically impossible to provide this service and it was a matter envisaged by the constitution. 

According to Hom Thapa, chairman of Tumbewa Rural Municipality, they will manage the expense and staff management themselves if the government gives permission to set up a service center.