Event titled “Interaction with local stakeholders on land management for landless squatters, Dalits and unorganized settlers of Chandranagar” was conducted on 25 February 2022 by SAP Nepal with the support of UNDEF, with and coordination and collaboration with the Musahar Association and respective municipality. The major objective of the event was to discuss on issues of land rights of the Dalits and enhance the accountability of the relevant stakeholders towards marginalized communities. The interaction program was chaired by Mahendra Mahato, Chief of Chandranagar Rural Municipality and Raj Kumar Yadav (Chairperson, Land Issue Resolution Commission) was the chief guest of the event. The program was facilitated by Prakash Mainali, the manager and journalist of Radio Ekata. The program was attended by 41 people including ward chairpersons of 6 wards, Dalit women ward members, representatives of civil society organizations, Dalit leaders, and heads of government bodies, leaders of Musahar Women Empowerment Forum and media personnel.
Speaking on the occasion, Ritu Raj Rishi, president of Nepal National Mushar Association Salarhi, said that political parties promises to make land ownership certificate available to landless to collect votes during the election, , however, after winning the election they do not show any interest in ensuring land rights of the landless. Rajarnia Devi Majhi, a Dalit woman member of Ward No. 6, said that the ward chairperson do not listen to the problems of Dalit women. Rajkali Devi Majhi, chairperson of WOMEF, said that the government did not help the Musahar community even during the Covid pandemic who were battling famine due to lack of land of their own.
In the event, Raj Kumar Yadav, chairperson of the Land Issue Resolution Commission, said that though this commission has been formed by the central government, the local government are facing challenges due to absence of records on number of squatters and public land areas. He also said that, facilitation committee has been formed only in 5 municipalities of Sarlahi for identification and data collection of the landless Dalits and squatters along with the cost of land measurements and verification. Also, the commission could not function properly due unstable government that led to regular change in officials, he added. Additionally, he also mentioned that local forest areas also require to be managed to provide land for the landless but due to the cumbersome legal process, the forest department is not willing to handover forest areas to the local government. Correspondingly, land mafia’s occupying most of the public lands in Sarlahi is another reasons for unavailability of land for the landless squatters.
Towards the end of the program, Chandranagar village chief Mahendra Mahato, said that the local government had plans of providing land to the landless squatters and Dalits but could not execute due to the instability of the Central government and Covid pandemic. He said that though Chandranagar rural municipality had signed agreement with the commission, plans could not be executed due to delay in formation of the ward level facilitation committee. However, he also mentioned that they taking this matter seriously and committed to take initiatives sooner to execute this plan by conducting meeting of the Special village council within few days.