KATHMANDU: Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs, and General Administration Pratibha Rawal has said the government will begin distributing land ownership certificates to landless settlers from the first week of July under a new mechanism aimed at resolving long-standing landlessness issues.

Speaking in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Rawal said only about 9,000 land ownership certificates had been issued despite 1.2 million applications being submitted over the past 30 years. She said district-level committees led by Chief District Officers would now oversee the process.

The minister also said Rs 5.9 million had been returned to small depositors of eight troubled cooperatives over the past three months, while Rs 35.4 million in loans had been recovered.