Since the days of Bhumisudhar, Nepal has set limits on the ownership of land by its citizen. Some Ropanis in Hills and a few Bigha in Terai regions is what each person was entitled to own.
Despite such legal provision of capping, there were abundant rumours about the size of land former Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa and others owned. This indicates that people like to own vast amount of land if they can, and perhaps capping does not really make sense.
I think, capping of land ownership should not extist. There are not many democratic countries in the world which cap how much one can earn or how much they can invest in land. If they did then there must be ways of bypassing them without much effort. If someone earned a vast amount of money through their sheer hard work or luck and wished to purchase a sizeable piece of land in the open market, then there should be no restriction. However, if they inherit a huge piece of land, which is not "earned" then the government should tax it appropriately (like in Britain where unearned income of any sort is taxed at around 40%). If the government taxed any "unearned" asset, including land, then what people inherit would become relatively smaller (i.e., if inheritance tax was 40% beyond the threshold, people would only inherit 60% thus making the government richer every time someone inherited beyond the threshold). The threshold for inheritance without paying any tax should probably be capped at 10 ropanies in Hills or 1 bigha in Terai - but this can be agreed after wider consultation with the public.
Distributing land to homeless people sounds a very good idea but it will not be technically feasible as our propulation grows at the current rate (almost doubled in the past 30 years?). I think we should be looking into the alternatives such as provision of social housing for people to live and provision of job opportunities or social benefits so that unemployed poor people can get help from the government. Since Nepalese land is not going to increase in size, we should be looking into what would be sustainable in the long run.
If you can justify distributing land to ever increasing population or capping on how much people should invest in land, please let us hear your views.
Nepalko Bhavi Sambidhanma Kasta Kuraharu Bhaye Hunthyo?
What do you think the new constitution of Nepal should offer us?
I guess the constitution should provide an EQUAL OPPORTUNITY to ALL its citizens irrespective of their caste or race, religion, gender, age, origin, background and ability (et al). This literally means that you will be treated equally by the state whether you are a Muslim/Christian or Hindu/Buddhist, straight, transgender or gay, Shudra/Vaishya or Chhetri/Brahmin, 19 or 90 year-old, able or disabled, Madhesi/Pahade or Bhote, Oriental or Aryan, PhD holder, an illiterate or in-between!
It is fairly easy to say this but in order to offer such a fair opportunity to all we need a very transparent system in place in every walk of life. My philosophy is very simple: most good things including the Internet have now been invented by the rest of the world, we simply need to import good ones into our constitution and implement them! Most of them are tried and tested already by the world and we can only pick up those that are the BEST!
I have got a proposal: Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese live abroad now, some commanding fairly good positions where they have seen something work very well in their neighbourhood. I suggest they all suggest "best practices" from their walk of life to be considered in the new constitution of Nepal so that we will be heading towards having one of the best constitutions in the world!
I have got areas that I would like to mention in this site. If you have any reasons why they should or should not be included please list your reasons. Only constraint is that you should list commonsensical, logical (mathematically or scientifically), proven (those implemented successfully somewhere in the world) or tested (piloted successfully in some areas) issues with valid argument either for or against your points.
If you wish to read constitutions of other countries in the world, please follow these links (I think everyone involved in the making of the constitution of Nepal should visit these sites too):
http://confinder.richmond.edu/alpha.php
http://www.constitution.org/cons/natlcons.htm
http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/const.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_constitutions_by_age
I suggest you read points raised here and make comments by clicking on "comment" at the end of each point, either anonymously or by logging in with your genuine address.
I guess the constitution should provide an EQUAL OPPORTUNITY to ALL its citizens irrespective of their caste or race, religion, gender, age, origin, background and ability (et al). This literally means that you will be treated equally by the state whether you are a Muslim/Christian or Hindu/Buddhist, straight, transgender or gay, Shudra/Vaishya or Chhetri/Brahmin, 19 or 90 year-old, able or disabled, Madhesi/Pahade or Bhote, Oriental or Aryan, PhD holder, an illiterate or in-between!
It is fairly easy to say this but in order to offer such a fair opportunity to all we need a very transparent system in place in every walk of life. My philosophy is very simple: most good things including the Internet have now been invented by the rest of the world, we simply need to import good ones into our constitution and implement them! Most of them are tried and tested already by the world and we can only pick up those that are the BEST!
I have got a proposal: Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese live abroad now, some commanding fairly good positions where they have seen something work very well in their neighbourhood. I suggest they all suggest "best practices" from their walk of life to be considered in the new constitution of Nepal so that we will be heading towards having one of the best constitutions in the world!
I have got areas that I would like to mention in this site. If you have any reasons why they should or should not be included please list your reasons. Only constraint is that you should list commonsensical, logical (mathematically or scientifically), proven (those implemented successfully somewhere in the world) or tested (piloted successfully in some areas) issues with valid argument either for or against your points.
If you wish to read constitutions of other countries in the world, please follow these links (I think everyone involved in the making of the constitution of Nepal should visit these sites too):
http://confinder.richmond.edu/alpha.php
http://www.constitution.org/cons/natlcons.htm
http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/const.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_constitutions_by_age
I suggest you read points raised here and make comments by clicking on "comment" at the end of each point, either anonymously or by logging in with your genuine address.
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