KATHMANDU, Feb. 18 -- The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) stares at a herculean task of regaining control over around 500 ropani [25.44 hectares] of public land encroached over the past few decades in many places. Since the KMC started the process to take back the encroached land in March last year, dozens of people who have been using the encroached land have come forward with ownership certificates for the lands, throwing the reclaiming process into a legal limbo.

KMC officials say that the land they want to regain control over is just a third of around 1,500 ropani [76.31 hectares] of land that was encroached after the 1990s, a period marked by political instability and widespread corruption. Exact details remain unclear, but it is ...