By D.M.Thapa Kathmandu used to be a peaceful place. The other parts of Nepal were more peaceful. But times have changed, land has become very dear even in remote villages, in Kathmandu it has become the best thing any person can own. As all facilities including the country’s only international airport and also good health care, good educational institutions and other government facilities all seem to be here, everyone wants to live in Kathmandu. Thus land has become a goldmine in all parts of Kathmandu and the greedy and those with crooked minds are willing to go to any length to grab land no mater to whom it belongs. The media is silent on this, but Sujata Koirala when her father late Grija Prasad Koirala was in power, tried to grab even public land, we the innocent people don’t know how much land she already has grabbed. After all she is the person who was able to send Scot free her son-in-law when he was virtually indicted in a scam and he definitely was guilty of cheating the government. There is nothing wrong in if a person has sold his or her land outside Kathmandu or someone has earned money by working abroad or someone has saved money by working hard in Kathmandu itself, to buy a piece of land here. But to grab land belonging to others or land that has not been registered to any individual just because you are in power is a crime. Here this author would like to also accuse the officials in the Land Revenue Department, the Land Reforms Commission and Department of Survey for being indulged in gross corruption and getting away with their crimes. I myself had a harrowing experience when I had to prove in front of officials from these departments that the land actually belonged to me and that also within a walled compound! I had to bring twelve witnesses from the neighbourhood, already a difficult task because they all had to go to work like I had to go to work. But this procedure was insisted on by the officials and all because the government changed the Ward number of the place where I lived in! Was that my fault? No! What was my fault? But at the same time these very officials allowed a notorious man known in stealing other’s land to buy and sell a piece of land within my compound without anything of these deals coming to the knowledge of me and my family members. These type of officials do not only have to be fined or put in prison, but even shot. Though I said in this very column last week, I am totally against capital punishment, now I understand a bit why some leaders corrupt people shot to death. For ordinary folks like us these officials use all regulations and try to create obstacles in our work, but for those who give them bribes, specially the land Mafias of Kathmanu, all regulations are flouted. Otherwise how could an unknown person come and build a house within my compound without us knowing anything? How could this local land Mafia have bought and sold our land without our knowledge? Weren’t the so called government officials not in cahoots with this man? They must have thrown out of the window, the very rules and regulations that they trouble most of the public with. There are hundreds of land Mafias in Kathmandu, including some politicians, some bureaucrats and others who live a life of luxury, but if the government can’t do anything, God will definitely punish them for their misdeeds and they will not have one night of peaceful sleep. The question also is what will these crooks, including corrupt officials of the concerned offices do with the money and land they have gained illegally? Can they eat it? Or can they carry it with them when they die? The most satisfaction they may have is in thinking they have earned more money, though at other’s cost. Doesn’t this prick their conscience? But what conscience can such corrupt people with only money in their minds have? But the fact remains that these people rule the roost and only the innocent people get crushed in their rush to grab land and money. Yet, we have to fight against the land Mafias who enter your domain as rats and become tigers who are ready to grab your throat as soon as they have accomplished their dirty tasks. The government authorities are hopeless in such daylight robbery and they simply say “We don’t interfere in such domestic problems’. Then who does? The courts are no different, they decide in favour of only a clever lawyer. Then where can innocent people find justice? It is high time we crush the land Mafias in Kathmandu and all across the nation to save the country and protect the rights of innocent people, like me for example.