After the foundation stone for Kathmandu-Tarai fast track was laid, real estate agents have been flocking to the villages around the proposed stretch. Consequently, price of lands adjoining areas have gone through the roof.
The otherwise fallow land of Kaman Singh Thing of Chhatiwan-6, Budhune was sold at a good price. Thing told this scribe, “I had never thought that the land which was quite useless could be sold for such a good price.”
Shiva Ram Bohara, secretary of Chhatiwan VDC, said that all the hotels in Hetauda were occupied with people intending to purchase land in the VDCs like Hatiya, Harnamadi, Chhatiwan and Thingan. According to him, the locals are even registering the land that had been used by the public for so many years. Chandra Mani Sharma, head, District Land Mapping Office, Makawanpur, is surprised to find the increase of work load in the office. He said, “It seems as if all the people of the nation have been purchasing land in Makawanpur.”
As the real estate business flourishes the cases of cheating of locals are also rising. Pratap Singh Chepang hailing from Raksirang-8 has become a victim of the cheating. He had been to Hetauda to sell a piece of fallow land but the agents cheated him and sold his residential land instead. Chepang came to know that his land was sold just for Rs 80,000.
“The fast track project ruined the old man’s life,” said Krishna Bahadur Chepang, former chairman Raksirang VDC. He said that the trend of land mafias getting land from the innocent people even by enticing them was on the rise.
In another incident of the kind, Tara Maya Chepang was stunned when she learnt that the piece of land, in which she was running a shop, was sold. The shop was the only source of earning to maintain her family and education of her four kids. She said that her father-in-law Gurja Chepang the land without the consent of the family members.
As a consequence of the flourishing land sale, the Chepangs and Tamangs have been losing their hold over the land and the natural resources.
Source: The Himalayan Times