The controversial guthi bill brought by the government is almost similar to one registered in the National Assembly by the then Sher Bahadur Deuba government in 2002.
Deuba, who also oversaw the Land Revenue Ministry, had registered the bill in the National Assembly and discussions were held on that for a few days. But he dissolved the parliament on May 22 that year to hold fresh elections. The then king Gyanendra later dismissed Deuba calling him incompetent for inability to hold elections.
The bill, therefore, could not be passed as the political parties then launched movement against Gyanendra.
The current government has presented the bill in the parliament keeping many provisions as they were then.
All three disputed clauses in the current bill have been copied from that prepared by the Deuba government.
The 2002 bill envisioned a nine-member committee to be led by a special class officer of the government for operation of the guthis. The current bill also has a provision of a seven-strong committee for the purpose. The operators of guthi (community trust) in the Kathmandu Valley have opposed this provision the most.
The provision that ends the rights of the trustee of public guthis is also exactly the same in both the bills. Similarly, the 2002 bill required the trustee of private guthis to submit the record to the Guthi Sansthan. The current bill requires such trustees to submit the record to the provincial guthi management body.
Many more provisions in the bill of 2002, that Setopati has acquired, are also similar to the current one.
The social, political and cultural situation in the country has changed drastically in the intervening 17 years but the government has almost copied the old bill.
"There would be criticisms for changing the provisions if we had, as we are now criticized for not changing the provisions. That is not right," fumed Secretary at the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Gopi Nath Mainali. "We have brought this bill after comprehensive discussions and consultations with everyone concerned," Mainali claimed.
But the stakeholders concerned counter that they were not consulted before the bill was submitted to the parliament.
