Landless residents of Ichchhakamana receive land ownership certificates

Landless residents of Ichchhakamana Rural Municipality-7 in Chitwan have received land ownership certificates in their own names.

Recipients said the fear of one day being evicted from land they had lived on for years has lifted, replaced by hope for a secure future. They appeared happy to see their own names and photographs on the certificates, known locally as "rato khola" documents.

Purna Bahadur Praja, 71, said, "I received the certificate my ancestors never got," adding that only now does he feel his right over the land is secure. Young resident Manila Tamang and Devlal Gurung, born in 2010 BS, also received certificates in their own names. Mangal Bahadur Chepang and his wife Shanti Maya Chepang both received certificates bearing their own photographs.

Across Chitwan district, nearly 45,000 applications have been submitted by landless Dalits, landless squatters and unmanaged settlers combined. Chief Survey Officer Shridhar Dhungana of the Survey Office, Bharatpur, who is also member-secretary of the District Land Problem Resolution Committee, said the applications are being studied and the necessary process is moving forward.

Ichchhakamana Rural Municipality chair Dan Bahadur Gurung said long-running preparations by the rural municipality are now taking concrete shape.