The family of late Nepali Congress (NC) leader Suvarna Shumsher Rana has claimed that its land of Lalita Residence in Baluwatar confiscated by the Panchayat regime was returned to the family after restoration of democracy in 1990.
Rukma Shumsher Rana, Hemadri Rana and Hatak Shumsher Rana of Suvarna's family on Thursday have issued a joint press statement on the issue of Baluwatar land grab and made such claims.
"We were returned the land inside the Lalita Residence as per the Cabinet decisions of May 28, May 31 and July 23 in1990, and we sold all of that land in our name 12 years later," they have said in the press statement.
They have claimed that the Panchayat regime did not acquire their land and had confiscated it. "The Panchayat regime had issued a notice on March 12 and March 23 in 1962 warning that all the properties will be confiscated if the family did not return to Nepal within 21 days," the statement claims. "The government had written to the officers concerned to confiscate our property citing that our father Suvarna Shumsher and grandfather Kanchan Shumsher ignored the notice and did not return to Nepal."
They point that the letter written by the then zonal head of Bagmati to Samar Jung Company to allow tenants to till the land inside Lalita Residence that has already been nationalized shows that the property was confiscated.
The probe committee led by former secretary Sharada Prasad Trital in its report, however, had said the government had acquired the land paying compensation to the family. The committee stated that the then king Mahendra after the coup in 1961 had confiscated 14 ropanis land of Nepali Congress leader Suvarna Shumsher Rana and his father Kanchan Shumsher in Baluwatar. The government four years later acquired 285 ropanis of Rana's land in Baluwatar by paying compensation.
The Trital committee has recommended revocation of the Cabinet decisions of 1990, 2010, and 2012 that helped transfer of the land acquired legally by the government to individuals.
The Rana family has also claimed that the court and the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) have repeatedly ruled that the land it got back is not government land.
"The complaint lodged after we got the land back claiming that land mafia illegally registered government land in the name of individuals was kept on hold by the CIAA on July 2, 2003. Surya Nath Upadhyaya was the CIAA chief then," the statement pointed.
Another complaint was lodged with the CIAA after the Rana family sold the land. The CIAA this time ruled that some of the registered land is government land. The CIAA decision was challenged in the Supreme Court (SC).
"A joint bench of justices Balaram KC and Rajendra Prasad Koirala issued a certiorari order on that and record of registration of the land in the name of individuals has been kept as per the letter of Order Implementation Directorate after the certiorari order," the Rana family stated.
The family expressed ignorance about the Cabinet decisions in 2010 and 2012. It has also not mentioned the area of land the family was returned after the decision of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai led Cabinet in 1990. It just says that all the returned land was sold in 2003.
The Trital committee, however, said that some of the land was transferred to the Rana family after the Cabinet decision in 1990 while some went to the hands of Shova Kanta Dhakal and Ram Kumar Subedi it has identified as land mafia. Dhakal and Subedi transferred ownership of eight annas out of that land to son of CPN General Secretary Bishnu Paudel in 2004.
The Rana family has put hope on NC. "We still have expectations from NC," the statement reads. "We did not just have to lose our properties but also had to live apart from our home and families due to our association with NC. But we continuously participated in the struggle for democracy. You all are our continuous witness and patron."
The Rana family has also urged NC to make only informed comments on the issue of Baluwatar land grab. It has alleged that the dispute has been unfairly revived over 25 years after they got the land back and sold it.
