National Land Commission's Quarterly Newsletter July–September, 2014
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SaZhi “Securing the priceless land for prosperity and happiness” National Land Commission’s quarterly newsletter July–September, 2014 Vol. I, Issue III Inside this Issue His Majesty granted land kidu for Zhemgang The procedures for land Pg. 4 Dzongkhag acquisition & substitution JICA supports on Pg. 6 ‘Development of Geospa- tial Data’ for Bhutan Land Commission Offi- Pg. 7 cials meet Dzongdas Bhutanese to Have Ac- Pg. 8 cess to Reliable Geo- Information Overall concept & advisor: Pema Chewang, Secretary Editorial board Tenzin Namgay- Head ,CID Gungsang Wangdi- PPS His Majesty the King granted land kidu to 6,708 households and land substitutions to 10 households of Zhemgang dzongkhag on 16th September, A girl offering flowers to Her Majesty the Gyaltsuen during the public 2014. Total area of 11,410.723 tokha in Zhemgang acres of land was granted as kidu for excess land and ex- Commission carried out a na- central to the lives of the peo- empted excess cost payment of tionwide cadastral resurvey in ple because land provides se- Nu.158.768 million. 2008 and the first land kidu was curity of inheritance, secu- granted for Lhuentse dzongkhag rity of home, food security The Kidu is part of His Maj- in 2009. and security of well being. esty’s ongoing land reform fol- lowing the National Cadastral In his Royal address to the peo- So far, His Majesty has Resurvey Programme for the ple of Zhemgang dzongkhag, granted land kidu in 11 entire country. As per the Royal His Majesty said that land is Dzongkhags. command, the National Land Volume 1, Issue III Page 2 Towards Faster Service Delivery With setting up of the Help Desk Help Desk will now provide fol- The standard service proce- at the entrance of the National lowing services instantly if the dures for the above services Land Commission Secretariat, It people are coming to: have been put in place to be is expected to render effective Obtain provisional land own- followed by the Officials work- and efficient services compared ership certificates ing in the Help Desk. Only to the past. Most of the every- Get cadastral maps of the those matters beyond the pur- day services provided by the plots for various purposes view of Help Desk may have to office have been made easily Viewing of landownership be referred to the respective accessible to the public. Unlike and content details Division Chiefs or the Head of in the past people will not have Viewing of cadastral maps the Agency. Good news for the to face difficulty of finding and and enquiries of acreage public is that all of the above getting to the relevant Sections Follow up on land transac- services can now be delivered for any land related enquiries tion processes and related within a day. they have for clarifications. The matters NLC signed MOU with BOiC The Memorandum of Under- industries by providing prompt land conveyances. It would also standing was signed between and efficient delivery of public facilitate access to State Forest the National Land Commission services and approvals. Land, survey, lease of land for (NLC) and the Business Oppor- projects financed by BOiC. tunity Information Centre In order to achieve the above (BOiC) on 3rd September, 2014. objective, the NLC would be Mr. Rinchen Jamtsho, Land The main objective of signing of advising on land related mat- Registrar has been appointed MOU is to promote establish- ters, legal provisions, rules and as the focal official responsible ment of rural, cottage and small procedures for different types of for all matters related to BOiC from NLC. SaZhi Page 3 NCRP Review Workshop One day workshop to review gal issues mended over the progress NCRP spillover activities (SoA) Human Resources issues made so far and hard work was held on 03/07/2014 in the The main objective of the work- put in by the field staff. He conference hall of the National shop was to discuss and resolve advised the field staff not to Land commission. The work- the above field related issues. get into favouritism while shop was chaired by Honorable The significance of the NCRP providing services and work Secretary. All field staff involved exercises was reiterated by the with high moral ethics and in the NCRP SoA participated in Hon’ble Secretary. He also com- integrity. the workshop. The workshop discussed the following issues; Status and Progress of the Spill-over Activity Assurance of the quality of field data Harmonization and integra- tion of NCRP and Spill-over data Field level technical and le- Google Apps Training The National Land Commission Secre- tariat was the first agency to train its em- ployees on using the Google Apps for official purposes. One day training on Google Apps namely GO LIVE users was conducted from 16th to 22nd July 2014. All employees of the NLCS were divided into 5 groups and IT Section coordinated the training. It is also in pursuit of Government’s initiative to reduce paper usage and go electronics. Volume 1 Issue III Page 4 The Existing Procedure for Land Acquisition and Allotment of Substitution The Agency intending to acquire form (7) considering the follow- month after receiving the direc- shall submit an application to the ing: tives. The Secretariat shall sub- Secretariat projecting: I. Specify the compensation to mit the report to the Land Com- the purpose and be provided, based on the mission for its final decision. The the area of the land required PAVA rate. NLC may approve or reject the for proposed acquisition. II. In case of land substitution, acquisition. The Commission Secretariat relevant clearance certifi- shall: cates such as Forest and If not approved the Land Com- Verify and confirm if the pro- Nature Conservation Act and mission shall state the reasons posed acquisition is in the Environment Act. of rejection. The Secretariat public interest. III. If chhuzhing is to be ac- shall based on the grounds of Ensure that conflicting national quired for purposes other rejection convey the applicant interests on land use if any are than Chhuzhing the compli- and the Dzongkhag/Thromde involved. ance of Chhuzhing conver- accordingly. The secretariat shall arrive at a sion requirements prescribed decision on the proposal within 2 under Section 166 of the Upon approval of the NLC the weeks after receipt of the appli- Land Act. Secretariat shall undertake the cation: IV. The location of the substi- functions of registration and pro- If the proposal is feasible, the tute land from rural area in viding compensation as per rele- Secretariat shall instruct the compliance with Section 155 vant rules. Dzongkhag/thromde Commit- of the Land Act. tee to conduct and prepare a V. Ensure compliance of restric- detailed report. tions as per sections 146, If the Secretariat rejects the 148, 157 and 158 of the Land proposal, with justifications , it Act. Thram’s Corner shall inform the applicant ac- VI. Survey report including ca- History cordingly. dastral maps indicating The Dzongkhag Committee shall clearly the total area, location “Langdo” was another unit of notify the landowner of the Gov- and identification of the land measurement of land recorded ernment’s intention to acquire to be acquired and substitute in the Martham Chem for East- land at least 120 days prior to land. ern Bhutan. “Langdo” literally the acquisition of the land if the VII. If it includes cash compen- means a pair of oxen in Bhu- Secretariat approves the pro- sation the responsibility of the posed acquisition. particular Government institu- tanese language. One landgo tion or Gerab Dratshang to of land was based on a plot For Thromde, the Executive pay cash compensation. which a pair of oxen could Secretary shall convey the inten- VIII. Compatibility to the struc- plough in a day. 3 langdos of tion of the Government to ac- ture or Local Area Plan and Kamzhing equal to 1 acre while quire land at least 120 days be- Development Control Regula- fore the acquisition of land to the tion on the purpose for which 4 langdos of Chhuzhing equal concerned landowner. the land is to be used by the to 1 acre. applicant in case of Thromde. In case of feasible proposals, Dzongkhag/ Thromde Commit- The Dzongkhag/Thromde Com- tee shall prepare a detailed re- mittee shall forward the detailed port in the Forms PLA(1) to PLA report to the NLCS within one SaZhi Page 5 Land Rules and Regulations under review A three day workshop on revi- The revised land rules and regu- approved, land related forms sion of Land Rules and Regula- lations is expected to be submit- would be simplified and number tions was held at Paro from 18th ted to the Commission for fur- of pages reduced to make more to 21st August 2014. The main ther review and approval. Once user friendly. objective of the workshop was to make land rules and regulations easily implementable and sort out inconsistencies. Along with the revision of the rules and regulations the workshop also discussed on simplification of the existing land transaction forms. It was observed that there are many different kinds of forms with several pages. KNOW YOUR LAND ACT The Land Act of Bhutan 2007 Section 142: The Government may acquire a registered land for public interests. Section 143: The Government may provide substitute land or cash compensation, or both, as compensa- tion. Section 144: Acquisition of land shall entail a fair compensation. Section 145: Acquisition shall be in accordance to the procedures on acquisition of registered land. Section 146: Acquisition of the land occupied by religious monuments shall be avoided. Section 147: The landowner shall have the discretion to opt for substitute land or cash compensation of- fered by the Government in case of land acquired from rural areas.