Land details drive runs into non-cooperation

The Ministry of Land Reform and Management (MoLRM) has said that its efforts to collect land details from across the country have become ineffective due to non-cooperation from the ministries concerned.

MoLRM had initiated a landmark move to enforce the Land Reform Act (Fifth Amendment)-2001, that prohibits possession of land in excess of ceiling, by issuing a 35-day notice nearly two months ago.

"Our objective was to collect details of land from those possessing land exceeding the legal ceiling or below the ceiling," said Chhabiraj Panta, secretary at MoLRM, adding, "Our drive, however, has become ineffective due to non-cooperation from the ministries concerned."

According to him, three ministries-Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Ministry of Local Development (MoLD) turned a deaf ear to MoLRM´s request to support its move.

The government´s bid to enforce the land reform act means distributing lands in excess of ceiling to the landless.

As per the MoLRM notice, those who possess land exceeding the legal ceiling are required to submit their land particulars either at the Land Reform Office or the Land Revenue Office in their respective districts within the designated deadline.

"We have received information that only a few people submitted their land details following our notice, due to non-cooperation from government agencies concerned," Panta added.

According to him, MoF did not release the Rs 1.6 million sought by MoLRM to expedite its move while MoHA was found to be indifference in providing security as requested.

MoLRM had asked those who own land less than the ceiling to submit their land details either at the village development committee or at municipalities.

"We also didn´t get any cooperation from the local bodies," Secretary Panta told Republica. The Supreme Court had ordered the government to implement the land reform law enacted in 2001. Implementation of the law was expected to reform land distribution in the country.

"Our goal to identify by name, address and other particulars those owning more land then the legal limit, take over such land and distribute it to the landless has become ineffective due to non-cooperation from the ministries responsible," Panta said.

As per the Land Reform Act (Fifth Amendment), a person can own 20 ropanis of land in Kathmandu Valley, 10 bighas in the Tarai districts and 70 ropanis in Hill districts. Likewise, a person can own five ropanis of land in Kathmandu Valley and Hill districts and one bigha in the Tarai for homestead purposes.

Before the amendment to the act, an individual could own a maximum of 50 ropanis in Kathmandu Valley and 20 bighas in the Tarai.

Publishing a public notice in the state-run Gorkhapatra daily, MoLRM asked all Nepali citizens to support the ministry´s bid to implement the legal provisions and avoid possible action under the land ceiling.

Advocate Madhav Basnet had filed a contempt case after government officials failed to collect within 180 days particulars concerning those owing land over the ceiling, as directed by the apex court on January 20, 2010.

source: myRepublica

Land on Sale at Matatirtha @ 48,00,000 per anna

Land on Sale at Matatirtha @ 48,00,000 per anna


Location:
Kathmandu, Matatirtha
Baneath Kafal Dada,2 km from Sautangal Chowk

Land Area: 5 ropani

Price:NRs. 48 Lakh per anna

Access:
* 4 meter access road width
* Gravelled Road
* 2000 meter from the main road

Property
Vacant land located at peaceful surrounding having 14 ft. access road width,suitable for residential purpose

Impact Of NRB Directive On Real Estate

After Nepal Rastra Bank’s (NRB) new directives in real estate, it is showing impact on real estate sector of Nepal. visit below links to see more details on each topic.

Realty dips down
Realty feels the heat
Housing Business is here to stay
Kathmandu Real Estate in a Bubble
Realty market slows down across the country
Real Estate 'Crisis' Looming for Nepal

source: One Ropani Dot Com - NEWS

Tales of Kathmandu City

The Nepal Pavilion is an exquisite work of art with a large Buddhist pagoda as the centerpiece, surrounded by several folk houses representing styles from different periods. It showcases Nepalese artisans' outstanding talents in art and architecture.

The curator and the official organizer of the Nepal Pavilion said yesterday that they hope visitors can find a peaceful respite in the pavilion from the busy lines in the Expo Site.

Visitors can sit beside the white pagoda in the Nepal Pavilion and enjoy the scenery after entering the pavilion instead of hurrying to line up again. The pavilion hopes to reveal the beauty of wisdom through silence, the officials said. So far 7,50,000 people visited the Nepal Pavilion at the ongoing ‘Expo 2010 Shanghai China’ since its inauguration on May 1, making it one of the 10 most popular pavilions at the expo.

Following the theme “Tales of Kathmandu City,” the Nepal Pavilion is an exquisite work of art with a large Buddhist pagoda as the centerpiece, surrounded by several folk houses representing styles from different periods. It showcases Nepalese artisans’ outstanding talents in art and architecture. The pavilion aims to display the birthplace of Buddha – Lumbini, the wisdom of local people and their harmonious and natural lifestyle.

Nepali architects and engineers shipped some 500 tonnes of material, including carvings in wood, metal and stone as well as bricks and tiles. Inside the pavilion, country’s cultural and architectural glories have been showcased by exhibiting the development of the capital city Kathmandu.

Pictures at : 1Ropani.com

Landscaping Kathmandu

The ancient city is landscaped by some wonderful brushstrokes. The pre-rainy season has already colored the trees and groves greener and fresher. The mountains and forest patches look shining and sparkling. By saying this, we are also aware that there is abundance of human efforts to make the city one of the ugliest of South Asian urban spaces.

The lanes have obnoxious smell from garbage and vaporizing brooklets, multidirectional noises mock the sleeping babies at homes, and entertainment hubs at night beat the drums on the heads of resting families. There is no respite either in day or in night to ponder over the exquisite locations of the city.

There still are horizons rising high to decorate the city with mountains and greenery. Kathmandu is a piece of painting which still wonderfully depicts natural scenes. The major element of the city is mountainscape. Stand by the temples on the banks of the black and murky rivers and look into the direction of Kirtipur, look at Nagarjun hills from the Gongabu bus park, measure the soaring mountain heights in the south west from any Patan home, you still wonder about the brilliant landscaping of the city. The great landscape, however, is frequently obstructed by concrete buildings, perpetual construction zones, vehicles, and crowd. One of the most horrible sites is the thick waters of the inner rivers and brooklets.

What do you do with such a contrast? We cannot deurbanize the city and there is no point in imagining any such reversal. The only possible thing which we can do is to organize and negotiate the nature with cultural insights. Since we have done least for nature herself, and have no plans and interest to keep nature as it is, we at least can keep nature for ourselves. We have no other choice to keep nature but from the location of culture. We have tampered so much with nature that we have lost the power to think bio-centrically. We cannot think but through anthropocentric mindsets: We gurgle and vomit our views of nature. Kathmandu as a space of humans is an epitome of such aestheticides.

I accept our cultural limitations to gaze nature from our points of view. To urbanize the city with human minds and developmental machines we have demolished the inner-city woodlands, rivers, trees, and any green spots. There still are locations, the dying ones, which are helplessly procrastinating human acts of annihilation.

The valley still seems to be landscaped by wonderfully artistic brushstrokes, but the colors are fading, the contrast is gone, the lines are blurred, the texture is lost, the tonality is disappearing, curves are straightened.

A Native American once remarked that for the westerners all nature is dumb. Rather, we all see nature dumb. Since nature is non-human, she is an unthinking object, beautiful but dependent on us. Someone said we at least garden our homes, put flower pots around, and decorate her in whatever ways we can. Someone then laughed at the gardener and said that you have ruined her so much for so long that now you are shamelessly buying earthen pots made out of belching factories and making drawing-room-sense of the vast empire of nature.

Kathmandu is losing her sense of being a valley. The valley is now the other of the city, the city does not belong to the valley. The city has systematically exterminated the limbs of the ancient space: First the caves and caverns, swamps and marshes, then precious rivers and brooks, then the grooves, then the trees and its inhabitants, the water sprouts, the mounds, and tiny patches of bottomlands.

There is a dialectical tension between nature and culture and hence between the valley and the city. Dialectical because which is true of the location called Kathmandu— the city or the valley? Which one is dominant? Is it the city or is it the valley? These two spaces are no more reconciled into an ideal called Kathmandu valley. The one dominates the other and hence the relationship is uneven; the culture dominates the nature. The city dominates the valley: the two terms are not the metaphors of the other. Hence in this dialectical tension to find the truth of the valley, the valley is alienated.

The valley still seems to be landscaped by wonderfully artistic brushstrokes, but the colors are fading, the contrast is gone, the lines are blurred, the texture is lost, the tonality is disappearing, curves are straightened. I wonder how young artists like Sujan and Chirag will still be able to catch the silver rain drops and hold the brushes to hold the wonders of the valley!

The city is pushed to its limits and that is why the terminological significance of the valley is becoming meaningless. The geographical term is weak: The word is losing its semantic nuances. By the generosity of the poets and artists, the valley is still beautiful. A school kid still sees the valley beautiful and she paints a colorful picture of Kathmandu. She is happy and innocent that is why she sees the valley, or better yet, she is a fool who represents the essence of the valley but not the valley as it is! The teacher should punish her for not being realistic. She landscapes the valley with her imagination and when she grows up, she will find herself distraught by her own landscaping.


ARUN GUPTO
posted by: http://www.1Ropani.com

Why ‘Not’ have a common online real estate platform

Among successful e-businesses, real estate is one of the most promising and fast growing areas, empowered by the strong market demand. Particularly in Nepal, the perspective of online real estate business is most significant with the propensity coming from two sides of e-business, an increasing population of online customers with more e-business involvement and investment from real estate industry.

In case of real estate industry, the demand for more land and housing properties would be required in urban areas which will increase in years to come. The subsequent percent of urban families who are living in rented house today, either seeks for new flat for rent, buy land or build a house. Beside Kathmandu Valley, the real estate business is also growing in Pokhara, Hetauda, Bhartpur, Butwal, Nepaljung and other cities in the country.

The overwhelming public response to the first real estate expo recently held in Kathmandu with over 50,000 visitors is a good footstep to showcase builder’s projects, while visitors like me able to view several real estate properties under one roof.

I attended the expo as a buyer seeking for a new property; it took me awhile to figure out the details on cost and features of these products, in-fact it took me to second visit and yet again browsing independent builders’ websites and project sites visit is still far away.

Comparing the price against location, features and other criteria is a challenge. This time, I thought of traditional real estate agents that cater in this business process for a long time, participation by such companies was missing.

I also comprehend the fact that the real estate market is not well organized in terms of establish a healthy relation between buyers, agents and sellers communities. This is because, for buyers, property information is not easily available so that they could find information which would meet their requirements. Secondly, agent’s profile is unknown to buyers which dilute a trustworthy environment for business.

As for the agents, it is very difficult to figuring out potential buyers. Secondly, their client base is limited and finds it difficult to expand their business. Similarly, owners want to avoid non-potential buyers.

All these scenarios are due to lack of information availability at the first hand.

Information provided through newspaper classified ads, brochures or any other mass media are confined to limited space or time due to the cost factor. So, whatever information that goes out to public sphere are usually in condensed format thus adding to the ambiguity of the business.

With this and increasing number of new real estate building projects, infrastructure development companies, individual owners and investors - there is a competition to sell their products in the market.

The Internet, with convergence of technology is one such outreach media that effectively captures information and makes it possible to reach wider audiences and yet in more cost-efficiently.

However, the current state of e-commerce real estate business adopts a model where website owners act as intermediaries to the real estate agents and some deals under profit sharing basis while other hide property database to the public.

This time, I thought how interesting and useful it would be if there is an interactive online system whereby all the information and real estate property listings are housed in a single platform. The need of free and open access online platform is required to integrate property information such as by providing pictures, price, interactive maps, property features and other innovative tools, together with agent’s information through a single common platform.

Thereby, more and more people including agents and dealers will find more ways by utilizing such tools to compete and grow their business. Likewise, buyers and investors find it easy to search for the property that meets the criteria and find associated owner or agents for that property.

This direct connection is only possible if source and ownership to the information is been valued. In addition, horizontal collaboration of agents and builders working in the real estate market with online business experts congregate together.

Such real estate solution not only easy and cost effective means of advertisement and marketing strategies but also serves as a platform that provide all needy information innovatively to all actors in the business. Finally, it will attract and benefits to potential buyers like me or people across the country and beyond.