Land-related services to be provided from local governments

Services related to land revenue (Malpot) and surveying (Napi) will now be provided from local governments. In municipalities where these services have started, service seekers will no longer need to visit land revenue and survey offices.

According to the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, 207 local levels have shown interest in operating these services themselves. Among them are three sub-metropolitan cities: Dharan, Ghorahi, and Dhangadhi.

Other local units like Beldandi Rural Municipality (Kanchanpur), Sarkegad (Humla), Chulachuli (Ilam), and Chakrabhatta (Sarlahi) have also expressed interest. A seven-day notice was issued inviting applications, and 207 local levels submitted requests within that timeframe.

According to Director Roshan Ghimire, the services will be gradually transferred to local levels starting from Shrawan 1 (mid-July). Initially, selected local units will begin the service, and later it will expand to others.

The ministry plans to provide necessary manpower and training to municipal staff. Preparations to implement the system will be completed within a week.

Although local governments will handle services, each district will still have one office, formed by merging land revenue and survey offices. This unified office will be called either the “Land Administration Office” or “Land Management Office.” It will assist municipalities if any complications arise.

Currently, there are 170 separate land revenue and survey offices across 135 locations. The plan is to reduce this to 77 offices (one per district), significantly cutting down the number of offices and staff. Each office will have only about 15–20 employees.

The ministry has also introduced a 10-point governance reform plan, which includes integrating these services and shifting them to local levels.

However, a key issue remains unresolved:
Who will lead the unified office — administrative staff or technical (survey) staff? This debate has existed since 2057 BS (2000 AD) when a similar attempt failed due to disagreement between the two groups.

Discussions are ongoing, and a final decision is expected possibly from the next fiscal year.