Mahottari. Landowners who have not yet received proper compensation for their land on the Jayanagar-Bardibas railway have felt relief. After the Railway Department announced that it would correct the error in the classification of six bighas of land in Bardibas Municipality-14 and 15 kattas of land in Bhangaha-4, the landowners who were acquired by the Railways before will now hope to receive proper compensation.
Out of the total 69 kilometers of Jayanagar-Bardibas, 51 kilometers of railway tracks have been constructed and services have already been operated. The construction work of this section has not been able to proceed after the landowners launched a protest saying that the classification of the land within the 18 km distance of the Bhangaha-Bardibas section was incorrect.
Meanwhile, the department has now decided to start the work on this section after the local administration, the district-based survey office, landowners, officials of the Railway Department and people’s representatives of Bardibas and Bhangaha stated that the error in the classification would be corrected.
‘The representative of the Railway Department has expressed a commitment to correct the error in the classified map,’ said Kusheshwor Yadav of Bhangaha-4, quoting the representative of the Railway Department, Sumod Pokharel, ‘We had to launch a protest to get the money according to the classification of the Compensation Determination Committee, now we are hopeful that the money will be received. ‘
The controversy arose after Yadav’s land acquired by the Railways Department, adjacent to the road, was not shown on the map during the compensation distribution. The construction of the Bhangaha-Bardibas section of the railway has been halted after 35 farmers protested, saying that the classification made by the committee for Kholsipayni West in Bardibas-14 was different from their land in the same place.
Now, after the Railway Department said that it would correct the error in the classification of the land acquired by the railway in Kholsipayni West, there is hope that they will receive the amount as determined by the committee, said Niroj Adhikari, chairman of the Railway Project Victims’ Struggle Committee of Bardibas-1.
The dispute arose when the compensation received by the old landowners of six bighas of land area was less than the land of 35 people including Adhikari in the mapping done by the railway. .
‘We have not asked for more, we have asked for the compensation that has been fixed for the land where our land is’ Niroj Adhikari, chairman of the Railway Project Victims’ Struggle Committee, formed by the victims after not receiving proper compensation, says, ‘We were forced to protest only when the Railway Department did not show the location of Paini Paschim when it was mapped. Now that the Railway Department representative has said that the error will be corrected, I think it will be resolved.’
Similarly, although the land of Yadav of Bhangaha-4 is touched by the road, the road has not been drawn in the mapping done by the Railways. The landowners had protested after the department did not implement the report submitted by the local level and the District Administration Office after on-site observation of the land in both these places.
In Bhangaha, compensation of Rs. 600,000 per plot of land touched by the road and Rs. 150,000 per plot of land untouched by the road has been fixed. Yadav says that he has been unfairly left out of the compensation despite the fact that his land is touched by the road.
Bardibas Mayor Prahlad Kumar Chhetri says that the track construction work is now in place after the error in the classification has been corrected on the Jayanagar-Bardibas railway. However, there is still a problem in raising the houses of 14 families who are on the East-West Railway in Bardibas-14.
The compensation dispute of 14 families in Bardibas-14 is still complicated. Pokharel, a representative of the Railway Department, said that since these families do not have land in their names, and the land is in someone else’s name even though it is next to the road, a special decision will have to be awaited to find a solution.
The name of the late Nir Bahadur Hamal has been found in the field book of the land where these 14 families lived. Although his name was in the field book, he died before the landownership certificate was issued. Now, the family, settled by the late Hamal, is about to be displaced from the place where they have been living for 40 years.
Since the department’s decision that compensation cannot be provided due to the lack of land ownership documents in that place, there is no basis for where to go after leaving the current place, Chief District Officer Lalbabu Kawari said that publishing a notice of land claim in their case and starting a new process to resolve the problem would be a solution.
Kawari concludes that some solutions will be found when the Government of Nepal is requested to make the necessary decision according to this process.
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