Mar 13, 2017- The District Administration Office (DAO), Dhading is likely to start distributing compensation payments to locals of three VDCs for their land acquired by the Budhi Gandaki Hydroelectric Project from this week.
The first round of payments will be made for around 4,000 parcels of land at Salang, Maidi and Khari VDCs of the district, according to the DAO Dhading. The 1,200 MW storage type scheme is being built on the Budhi Gandaki River in Dhading and Gorkha districts.
The DAO will start distributing compensation once the applications forwarded by the Budhi Gandaki Hydroelectric Project Development Committee reach the DAO Dhading after being verified by the Land Revenue and Survey offices.
Around 1,400 applications have been forwarded to the Land Revenue and Survey offices by the project development committee. “By the end of this week, we will be able to issue compensation payments to the first batch of beneficiaries,” said Umesh Dhakal, chief district officer at the DAO Dhading.
“Once the compensation applications are verified by the Land Revenue and Survey offices, it shouldn’t take us very long to make payment.”
Applicants have opened bank accounts with state-owned Rastriya Banijya Bank, and the DAO will write to the District Treasury Office to deposit the compensation amount in the landowner’s accounts after they transfer their title deeds to the project, added Dhakal.
Last January, the Finance Ministry released Rs2.5 billion to the DAO Dhading to distribute compensation to the residents of the three VDCs whose land is being acquired by the project.
Likewise, the DAO Gorkha, another project affected district which has to distribute Rs2.5 billion in the first phase, has started issuing compensation payments to landowners in Ghyalchowk, Bhulmi and Darbung VDCs of the district. The DAO has so far distributed Rs247.27 million to 136 applicants of the three VDCs.
Although both districts have planned to complete the compensation distribution within a month, a shortage of staff at the Land Revenue and Survey offices in the district has delayed work. These offices play a key role in the compensation distribution process as they have to verify compensation applications and the category of the land.
The compensation distribution committees of the two districts have fixed the compensation rate at Rs524,000 to Rs835,000 per ropani. The latest project development committee report has put the number of affected households at more than 8,000.
Source: The Himalayan Times
