Land use policy handed over to Karnali province government

Karnali, Oct 11: The ‘Karnali Province Land Use Policy and Risk Sensitive Land Use Plan and Directive’ has been handed over to the Karnali province government. The policy was handed over to the Karnali province government at a workshop hosted by the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperative on land use policy, plan and directive in Birendranagar, Surkhet on Tuesday.

On the occasion, UNDP’s Assistant Resident Representative Bijaya Singh presented the policy document to Karnali province secretary Dr Narahari Prasad Ghimire. Spokesperson of Cooperative Ministry Dhan Bahadur Kathayat made a brief presentation about the land use policy, plan and directive.

On the occasion, he shared information to the stakeholders about the process of formulating Karnali province land use policy and risk sensitive land use plan, its rationale and constitutional, policy and legal foundations of policy formulation, key catalysts of development in the province, vision, goal and objective of the policy.

Karnali Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning, Bedraj Singh said the Karnali province government has played lead role in bringing land-use policy. He mentioned that the land-use policy was relevant and could be changed aligning the need. Cooperative Minister Bhim Prakash Sharma said the province government has relocated vulnerable settlements to secured places.

The policy has provisioned 20 percent compensation to the loss to be incurred in agriculture sector. The land use policy is a crucial document of the province government, commented Secretary at Ministry of Land Management, Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation Gokarna Mani Duwadi. He pledged that the federal poverty alleviation ministry would provide necessary support and assistance in executing the policy.

UNDP’s Singh said the assistance was provided in framing the empirical policy laying emphasis on overall need of the province and expressed commitment to support the province government in coming days. Also on the occasion, UNDP’s City Planner Barsha Chitrakar said collaboration was done with the province government in framing land use policy that has taken into consideration the geo structure of the Karnali, mapping of multiple hazards and high, medium and low risks. The bio and cultural diversity was taken into consideration while formulating the policy.