Property allocated for Mahendra Highway at Chandrapur Municipality in Rautahat district is being converted into private land, though the regulation dictates that there should be 25 metres buffer between highway and residential area.

Chief of Chandranigahapur Survey Office Sanjaya Kumar Sah said enforcing the regulation falls under the remit of the Department of Roads.

“The department has also not written to the survey office instructing how much space there should be between highway and private land,” he said. Sah, who was posted to the Chandranigahapur office only a few months back, said he had no idea why the road department did not intervene.

The Division Road Office, under the DoR, has warned that there could be a serious problem if the matter is not sorted out.

“This is an act of fraud. The District Land Revenue Office and the Survey Office both should be responsible,” said Daroga Prasad, chief of the Division Road Office. Officials at the DoR said the survey office cannot get away with the excuse of not receiving instruction, and that the DLRO should have refused to register the lands.

“We cannot stop the registration if the survey office has cleared the land,” said Keshav Bhattarai, officer at the DLRO.