KATHMANDU: Although the Supreme Court has restrained the government’s decision to open land allotments to discourage arbitrary subdivision of arable land, land fragmentation has increased since then.
The Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation had decided not to allow the subdivision of agricultural land in 2016. Since then, in December 2020, the ministry has decided to partially relax the ban and on September 3, 2020, it has decided to remove the ban completely.
Earlier December, a lawyer named Santosh Bhandari had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the decision of the ministry. Making a final decision on the petition on December 8, the Supreme Court has issued an order to the Ministry of Land Management not to implement the earlier decision.
During the month (last December), there were 116,000 land plotting against the Supreme Court. According to the Department of Land Management, an additional 150,000 plots of land have been cut across the country in the month following the decision of the court to stop the allotment.
Compared to November, the number of land plotting had increased by an average of 2,000 per day. In October, the daily average was 3,800 plots, while in November it is at an average of 5,800 plots, according to the records of the department.