The government has announced to relax the restriction enforced on land plotting. As per the Land Management Act 1964, the Ministry of Land Management on August, 10, 2017 had restricted plotting of land without permission from the concerned authorities.

“We have reviewed our former decision,” Minister for Land Reform Padma Aryal said during a press conference on Friday. “We have decided to review the decision after many people complained of family troubles and other problems due to the restriction.”

Land mafia are pressing the government to relax the restriction.

Land plotting has become a serious problem as space for arable land has been shrinking due to rampant urbanisation.

According to Aryal, the decision will not be applicable if the land is arable. “We will not allow arable land to be plotted for building houses,” she said.

Local bodies will ascertain whether a piece of land is arable or not and the permission for land plotting will be issued accordingly.

A new directive issued by the ministry on Friday stated that the decision was reviewed and new instruction issued to the concerned offices including the Department of Survey based on the suggestion and instruction to stop land plotting by the Supreme Court, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, the National Vigilance Centre, and several parliamentary panels.

The directive will come into effect once the new land use policy is finalised. A new law on land classification and its use is in the final stage of drafting.

The ministry also urged local governments to classify arable and non-arable land so that the directive can be implemented easily.

In urban areas, the directive classifies land into five categories. All the local federal units are also told to identify the land held by various government entities like agriculture, forestry, survey, land management and urban development offices and classify them.

The ministry has also set the criteria for plotting arable land such as sharing of property within the family.

Permission should be taken mandatorily from the National Reconstruction Authority and its subordinate offices to shift a human settlement or to develop an integrated human settlement for families displaced by earthquake.