More than 200 families of Bhotechaur and Lanti in Salyan district have been living here for decades, some since the 1970s, but none of them has land ownership certificate, which they say makes them perennially insecure.

Ganesh Bharati, a local, said his family has been living at Chhayachhetra-9 of Lanti for the last two decades.

“The district survey office had allocated a piece of land to each of family for the construction of house,” said Bharati. “The Commission for Landless People had distributed land to construct houses 19 years ago.”

The villagers say they have been requesting the VDC office, District Development Office and political parties to provide them land ownership certificate, but to no avail. We are facing lots of difficulties, especially when it comes to receiving government facilities, as we do not have land ownership certificates, they say. Another local Bhim Bahadur Oli said he has not been able to start a business he wishes to as he cannot float a loan for the lack of land document.

According to local Bhuwan Badi, the applications filed at the Commission for Landless People were never processed.

“If someone claims the land, we won’t be able to show any proof,” said Badi.

The government earlier in 1978 and 1999 had distributed land to landless people.