August 4: The Land Use Regulation issued by the government is currently in the phase of implementation.  The main objective of introducing this regulation is to protect the agricultural land and increase productivity.

However, the complexities that have surfaced while implementing this regulation is unlikely to disappear soon.

For example, there are plenty of agricultural land on the outskirts of Kathmandu valley. But the people’s representatives have been insisting that there isn’t any agricultural land in their local units.

The government has authorized the local units for the first time to classify lands on the basis of the Land Use Regulation. But later on, if the land use classification is to be changed it has to be done through the Local Land Use Council as well as the councils of the provincial and federal levels.

The centre does not have the authority to reject the recommendation made by the local level regarding the agricultural land. The people’s representatives are wary that classifying the land in agricultural category might cost them votes of the people get dissatisfied with their decision.

The Department of Survey insists that the local units have been making fake claims that there isn’t any agricultural land in their area just to appease their voters. Chandragiri and Nagarjun municipalities within the Kathamdu valley have recommended the Department of Survey that they have no agricultural land within their premises.

The Department of Survey as well as the concerned ministry does not have any answer if all the local units come up with the same conclusion that they do not have any cultivable land.

The Department of Survey has been mandated to update the existing map as per the recommendation made by the local units.

Director General of the department Prakash Joshi says that the map prepared by the department and the one prepared by the local units are totally different.