Money
Compensation distribution to begin within two weeks
District Administration Office (DAO), Gorkha, is likely to start distributing compensation to locals of three VDCs for land to be acquired by Budhigandaki Hydroelectric Project (1,200MW) within two weeks.District Administration Office (DAO), Gorkha, is likely to start distributing compensation to locals of three VDCs for land to be acquired by Budhigandaki Hydroelectric Project (1,200MW) within two weeks.
The project development committee and the DAO plan to complete distributing compensation to owners of 400 ropanies of land in Ghyalchowk, Bhulmi and Darbung VDCs in the first phase.
Residents of those VDCs have filed applications seeking compensation for around 600 land parcels. Out of 600 applications, the committee has processed and forwarded 25 applications to the Land Revenue Office for verification. After the verification, the DAO will start distributing compensation.
“If everything goes as planned, we will start distributing compensation within a couple of weeks,” said Chief District Officer Jitendra Basnet. “We are currently awaiting verification from the Land Revenue Office and
compensation amount from the project development
committee.”
Currently, the project has around Rs5 billion at its disposal collected in the form of infrastructure tax after the government levied Rs5 on each litre of petroleum products to fund the project.
“We are holding talks with the Energy Ministry for the release if the fund for compensation distribution,” said Laxmi Prasad Devkota, chairman of the project development committee. “We have also requested the ministry to manage additional funds to finance land acquisition.”
According to the project development committee’s estimates, total cost for acquiring around 58,000 ropanies of land in 27 VDCs of Gorkha and Dhading districts will exceed Rs50 billion.
Compensation distribution committees of both the districts have already fixed the compensation rate—ranging from Rs524,000 to Rs835,000 per ropani.
The land to be acquired by the project had been classified into five categories—paddy field, small farm land, land in market area, land adjoining a road and land near human settlements. Paddy fields and small farm lands have been further classed into four grades, with the compensation amount for the first grade being the highest.
According to the latest report by the project development committee, more than 8,000 households will be affected by the project.
The reservoir of the storage project will completely submerge 3,560 houses and the occupants will need to be resettled with proper compensation.
Likewise, 4,557 households will be partially affected, and they will require appropriate compensation.