Not trustees, farmers should have begun the protests

 Jagat Deuja

Land Right Activist

Guthi practices have a history of more than one and a half millennia. Outside the Kathmandu valley, the guthi is mostly related to the land. The Guthi (Trust) Act, 2033 had a provision to sale out the guthi-land through the auction but the new bill does not have such provision instead it has proposed to use the land for cultural development and open spaces. It has also provision to pull down home or other physical structure that have or may have adverse impact on the heritages.

Some critics have been alleging that the new act will give away the guthi-land to the farmers which is not true. It has curtailed the rights of the farmers. It proposed to provide the land to the farmers if they have any documents that promises to provide them the land by 1998 but no farmer has such documents so there is no chance of creating new tenants in the guthi-land. Therefore, I think instead of the trustees, farmers should have begun the protests.

Farmers who were weak and had no political connections could not get the land registered to their name but those near to the political power have already brought the land in their names. The people who are saying that registering the land in the name of the farmers is not acceptable should know that there was a practice in the past to privatise the land in the name of the tenants with the payment of the 25 per cent price of the land.

People in the Valley are primarily concerned to the Article 23 and 24. Article 23 has a provision to convert the properties of public and private guthi into the raj guthi. Article 24 intends to terminate all the rights of the trustee of the guthi, which were obtained through various orders, letters and documents, over the temples and religious sites. These heritages will be operated and managed by the government proposed powerful National Trust Authority. The Article 24 should be annulled. Apart from about half a dozen new provisions, the new bill is the continuation of the Guthi Act 2033.

Guthi Sansthan has worked for about two years while preparing the draft of the bill but never consulted with the key stakeholders. A meeting point should be found to address the demand of the guthiyar and farmers. People are saying that the bill can end the century-long traditions. There are more rumours than the facts. Most of the land of the guthi in Kathmandu has already been distributed or encroached. Hundreds of ropani land of the Pashupatinath Temple and other religious sites has been lost.

Heritages like the Pashupatinath Temple should be managed in a new style. Some temples can be managed from the offerings of the devotees. So far as the preservation of the heritages and religious sites is concerned, the new bill has better provision for the conservation. However, in an effort to make it more detailed, the drafters of the law have made some technical mistakes which need to be ratified.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 17 June 2018.