KATHMANDU, July 16: Under pressure from various interest groups, the government is backtracking on some of its decisions which were considered favorable to the general public. The government was credited for taking some crucial “pro-people decisions” such as ending the transport syndicate and banning the plotting of cultivatable land for the purpose of housing construction.
But the government is mulling over backtracking on these decisions under the influence of interest groups.
Backtracking on its decision to end the transport syndicate practically from the date when it decided to that effect, the government is preparing to extend the deadline given to the transport committees to legalize their property. Also, the government is said to be working to withdraw the suspension of the bank accounts of the transport committees.
With this, many fear transport cartels are being revived.
The government’s previous decision not to renew the registration of transport committees had forced them to register themselves as transport companies. The decision to declare as illegal the property of the transport operators unwilling operate as transport companies had been hailed.
Soon after making a comeback to power, Prime Minister KP Oli had vowed to uphold the previous government’s decision to continue the ban on plotting of cultivatable land. But Oli’s ministers have been mulling over lifting the ban saying that the ban on land plotting encouraged bribery in land registration and division of ancestral property among family members.
“Land revenue officers are collecting millions of rupees in bribe while registering land meant for housing. That’s why we must reconsider the decision to ban land-plotting,” Minister for Agriculture, Land Management and Cooperative Chakrapani Khanal told reporters in Butwal on Saturday.
Monday’s cabinet meeting is expected to take a decision to this effect.
It is also expected that the government is preparing to allow the suspended transport committees to withdraw the money in their frozen bank accounts. The government had decided to freeze the bank accounts of transport committees saying their property was illegal following their protests against the government.