That’s the number, if you didn’t know earlier, of ropanis of land king Gyanendra owns in Nepal making him, most probably, the biggest landlord of the country. And the most interesting thing is that our government still pays him monthly salary. The paradox is that the parliament, on the one hand rightly thinks that the king is not of use to the country but on the other hand approves budget allocated by the government. Question of the moment is, why are you paying the king, RICH king, the money that he doesn’t deserve? 30,000 ropanis of land? God, why would anyone need that much land? Will this ‘all powerful and sovereign’ parliament declare that land state property and use that for the national interest? What will this government do? Or this government of Girija Prasad Koirala and KP Oli wait for the election of Constituent Assembly for this too? People are curious to know.
By the way, here is more from the Kathmandu Post about those stunning numbers if you haven’t read the news yet:
King owns 30,000 ropanis of land
KATHMANDU, Aug 4 – King Gyanendra owns over 30 thousand ropanis of land in different parts of the country, and other members of the royal family have an additional 4,000 ropanis, according to a preliminary report presented to a parliamentary committee by the minister for land reforms and management.
According to the report, King Gyanendra possesses eight big chunks of land in different parts of the country, that aggregate to 30,043 ropanis. Similarly, Queen Komal has 71 ropanis in Bhaktapur and about 51.7 ropanis in Kathmandu.
The Ministry for Land Reforms and Management presented details of the lands owned by the king and the royal family at the meeting of parliament’s Natural Resources and Means Committee Friday. The report said King Gyanendra owns Nagarjun jungle (15,101 ropanis), Gorkha Durbar (452 ropanis), 143 ropanis in Bhaktapur, Chabhil Nikunja (338 ropanis), the Narayanihiti Royal Palace (8,940 ropanis) and a house built on a 23,000 sq. m area. Besides, the king has 5,009 ropanis of land in Kathmandu, 34 ropanis at Latikoili in Surkhet district and a bangalo built on about 2 bighas of land.
Likewise, around 2,791 ropanis of land in Chabahil, Kathmandu has been found registered in the name of the late King Birendra. Similarly, Princess Prerana has 11 ropanis of land in Lalitpur, Princess Prekshya has about three ropanis in Kathmandu and Princess Sitashma owns three anna in Kathmandu. Similarly, the queen mother owns 68 ropanis of land in Kathmandu, and one royal family member identified only as Maahila Maharani has 3 ropanis, while about 23 ropanis is in the name of Princess Shova.
Minister for Land Reforms and Management Prabhu Narayan Chaudhari told the committee that many records of lands registered in the name of the palace are messy as no one could inquire about royal property in the past. However, the committee was not satisfied with the report furnished by the ministry. It has directed the government to furnish complete details at its next meeting on August 14.
Chairman of the committee Prakash Jwala told the Post that the committee has directed the government to furnish details on tea gardens owned by the king and the queen and other lands jointly owned by them. Similarly, the committee has sought that the government furnish details of lands registered in the name of the late King Birendra and his family. Meanwhile, the committee has also sought the facts on reports about the selling of Narayanhiti Royal Palace. According to the reports, the government has paid the royal family a huge sum for the palace, and provided it to the king as his official residence.
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Comments
26 responses to “30,000: Number of the Century”
The Nagarjun jungle and Gorkha Durbar property should be nationalized and maintained by the govt. That would wipe out more 15,000 ropanis easily. It wouldn’t be such a big deal anymore then.
Calculate the area yourself
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1 Ropani (16 aana)= 5476 sq. ft. = 508.74 sq. metre = 0.050874 hectre
1 Bigha (20 dhur) = 13 Ropani = 0.67727 hectre
Ministry of Land Reform must ask one question to Gyanendra. And his answer must be either televised or printed on the front page.
QUESTION: WHY DID HE NEED 30,000 ROPANIS OF LAND?
His answer will tell whether Nepal needs a King or not?
you say 30,000 but it was reported 34000 ropanies. What’s the matter with you ?
Narayanhiti Royal Palace was sold to the Nepal government by King Mahendra at the time of King Birendra’s wedding. Clearly, the King does not own the Palace.
What are the souces of these claims??
my question was before I read The Himalayan Times.. insightful news…
The Narayanhiti royal palace belongs to the Nepal government. I’m sorry jounos but you have to get your facts right. So you can cooly reduce about 9000 ropanis from the figure.
I am perplexed why a princess who owns 3 annas of land should be paraded?! Infact why mention the land of princesses at all ?! Compared to Jhalanath Khanal who has 500 bighas of land plus, I don’t see how the land of the princesses should cause a dent.
I applaud the govt. to let these lands be taxed. This is the way to go about it, as much of the land will probably be given away.
But, at the same time we would like to know the tax status of all the members of the parliament plus all the leaders of the parties and their property details inside and outside of the country. Furhter, I am sure all our friends will like to know the financial details of the party accounts as well – how much they have and where they get their funds from?
For the King to have so much land does not surprise me – his family has reigned for over 200 years!!!! What surprises me is why they do not put it in to trusts or give it away? Or maybe I am wrong, maybe they have also given – I wonder if anyone has checked how much the royal family has given away as well?
CA elections should decide everything. The majority of the people don’t have faith on the representatives of the parliament today. Let fresh democratic voting decide the fate of our laws. Seriously, the house is packed with crooks, should we be just letting the house as it stands today decide the fate of our nation? I even doubt the legality of the decisions they have taken. I wonder if in the future there might be another commission to investigate the legality of the decisions the house takes? This is a serious issue, who is monitoring the lawmakers? The maoists – another dubious and dangerous entity, and if they are having their way, then it makes the matter even more serious and probably very much illegal. If it is the people by show of protests outside Singha Durbar, then I’m afraid no one is listening to them.
Who is running this country defacto? Or are we just running on empty?
Recently Mr. Rajendra Khetan had sent a letter to the UN Secretary General re the situtation in the country, and correctly so. Just as the maoists demand that they be recognised as they wish it is more important (now more than ever) to recognise our industries and businesses and listen to what this community have to say. They are the backbone of our economy and are a legal, and necessary force. It is time to hear the voices of these captains and leaders who carry no arms. These are the people who have to deal with the practical world which includes the livelihood of millions and which create meaningful employment. We should be paying heed much more to this sector then some political parties who gush a lot of philosophy and very little reality.
Forceful closure of industries, extortion, unrealistic demands imposed by the maoists not only have to be stopped, but since they have signed the code of conduct which ensures that they will not do all these atrocities, they should also be held and tried and punished for violating the code of conduct.
Sl,
Do you believe CA election will be occured? The SPAM themselves will be barrier for CA election. Because maoist already declared that they lay down their arms even after CA election results and feedback. It clearly shows that they are not in the mood to loose the game even with SPA. If they loose they might again take off the arms against the SPA ideologies.
And politics are being only major issues for the SPAM at present not economics. They don’t give damn at this time.
Fanta,
You are probably correct. So why all the fuss anyway? I think people should start arming themselves, as if the situation is as you forsee it, we will need to at least protect ourselves from a not too distant state of anarchy and massive restlessness. We will not be able to rely on the police or the army and definitely not the maoists. It’s each one to himself.
Does anyone know where one could buy an AK47 with ammunition? How much would it cost?
You can obtain one from agents of Islamic militants operating on our border. The cost is the soul of our nation.
An obvious attempt to discredit, nothing more. The aim is to divert the attention from the real culprits and their actions which has brought this nation, by own words, close to civil war.
Noone is going to win in this quagmire- nation will drown because of flotsam and jetsom of people like me ,you and Maoist.
We are expert at intentionally spilling the milk (bad blood) and crying over it later.
I think nepal is totally fcked up with maoist ideology. In my personal opinion, unless and until there is a proof that the king owned these lands illegally he should be allowed to own them. Isn’t that the basic principle of freedom? For instance, what if he has bought all these lands with the money which the governement gave him(legally; eg salary,allowance,etc)?
The 30,000 ropani of land is just the tip of the iceberg. Do you have a figure on the amount of money stashed in the Swiss bank? Probably, people will never know about this.
rosan,
I doubt he bought any land, but it has definitely been inherited. I don’t think inheritance is illegal as yet. The King should definitely rethink what he should do with this land whether it is 30000 ropanis or 3000 ropanis. I think the govt. should give him time and suggestions as well, instead of just trying to aggrevate situations and have a public display like they are doing. This sort of attitude does not benefit anybody. Everyone one needs time to adjust, and rushing in like bullies in a school yard is not the answer. This is a time for reconciliation and deep realisations, not a time for witch hunts and one upmanship.
you people are worry about ropanies of land, how about Maosit terrorist is still engaging killings business to innocent people, and ready to further masscare.
Go Gayna’s place get paper of those rapani land and give terrorist.
Good Luck
Nepalis
You are right. The Maoists will not give back any land peacefully.
Wagle for god sakes find more interesting posts, this is just lame man.
“SOLD AGAIN & AGAIN AGAIN & AGAIN AGAIN & AGAIN AGAIN & AGAIN and AGAIN & AGAIN”
It does not end with the 34 thousad ropanies of land; the main thing is that this same 34000 ropanies of land has been sold to the government (His Majesty’s Government=his own government) again and again, again and again, again and again, again and again, imagine how many times you can count. And at what rate? IMAGINE! And the money has opened innumerable secret accounts in the farthest and the most secret banks in the world.
A lot of property, but the Queen of England technically owns all of England. There is nothing surprising about the royal family owning so much property especially as it is their ancestor who conquered and made what we know as Nepal. Another point is historically, Kings have given away much of their property and allowed the ownership of private property by citizens and placed some of their property into businesses that contribute taxes and employ people, but I have not heard of our kings selling any of their property for cash!
The Ministry of Land Management is a lier, but Kantipur Publication is the greatest lier !! Infact, these “Goebles” are loktantrik thugs. These two agencies are by hook or crook trying to prove that the land area of Narayanhiti Royal Palace is 9,840 Ropanis. But, I ask all the journalist of Lokantrik Nepal to go around the circumference of the Narayanhiti Palace with a Meter Reader. You should prove it scientifically.
You know, the length of Royal Palace Compound on the South is 1000 m., on the North it is 750 m, on the East it is 548 m and on the West it is just 325 m. Now you can easily calculate how much land is there in the Royal Palace premise. It’s easy. I give you the following converter: “1 Ropani (16 aana)= 508.74 sq. metre.”
Can you guess the answer: 875 m x 438 m = 383250 sq. metre = 751 Ropanies. Thus, Narayanhiti Royal Palace premise is of 751 Ropanies, but not as the scoundrel’s claim!
You see, both the Ministry of land Management and Kantipur publication have cheated innocent Nepalis weilding their authority. Isn’t is amazing ??? Is it what accountability means in LOKTANTRA?
Hi, I see here is some community… May I take part?
King Gyanendra was a businessman before he came to thrown….. Its obvious that in a nation where rich people have no limitation of property and power, he will also have some.
Why just nationalise his property… we should nationalise property of every rich businessman…
Live the king alone….and treat him like a common citizen…