Interaction Program and MInTIS Project Progress update sharing
An Interaction program to share the progress update of the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) based Municipal Informal Tenure Information System (MInTIS) project was held in Ratnanagar, Chitwan on 14th May 2019. The Interaction program was organized by Ratnanagar Municipality in collaboration with Lumanti Support Group for Shelter with the motive to disseminate the information about the progress achieved under the MInTIS project which is being implemented with financial and technical support from UN Habitat/GLTN.
Speaking on the occasion, Mayor of the Ratnanagar Municipality Mr Narayan Ban appreciated the data information collected during the household survey and thanked Lumanti and UN Habitat for its generous support. On his remarks he said, the information collected during the household survey will be reviewed and genuine squatters will be screened. The informal settlements will be managed as per the policy and regulation formulated by the Center government, he added. He further said, the municipality as well will develop local policy and regulation to address the basic need of the marginalized people in the city. Talking about the housing program targeting the poor marginalized families, he said, Municipality has been supporting for poor people's housing through soft loan support in partnership with Lumanti. Some housing programs have been undertaken and to implement the similar housing program in large scale the city level fund need to be increased. For all these development initiatives, municipality need a plan and for developing the plan, the creation of the information system which is ongoing will be valuable. Municipality will analysis the data and information as per the need of the municipality and will develop the municipal plan, he said. Concluding his remarks, he urged the local representatives for their trustworthy recommendation to verify the information and data genuinely.
Chief Administrative Officer of Ratnanagar Municipality Mr Tub Raj Pokhrel, talking about the data base being prepared under MInTIS project, said the data base would definitely be valuable for municipal planning to address the basic need of the urban dwellers however the land management part, it is related to the state's policy.
Senior Manager of Lumanti Support Group for Shelter Mr Mahendra Shakya on his remarks highlighting the efficacy of the data base information said, the information which will be compiled digitally and owned by the municipality will be very much worthy for policy discussion in course of developing the local and center level policy. Apart from this, the information can be used as the resources for developing community action plan, on the basis of which budget can be allocated prioritizing the community need, he added. Furthermore, municipality can think of its long-term development plan on the basis of this data information system.
Land and GLTN Coordinator of UN Habitat Mr Rajaram Chhatkuli recalling the project inception meeting and tri-party agreement program briefly talked about the features and objectives of the STDM based survey. He also emphasized the role of municipality in sustaining the data information system and its use for policy formulation.
The interaction program was initiated with the presentation from Mr Singha Bahadur Lama, Field Coordinator of Lumanti in Ratnanagar. During his session, highlighting the procedure of household survey, he briefly stated the key progress made till date. As of the presentation, the household data collection has been almost accomplished with the survey of 1478 households from 53 settlements of 16 wards in Ratnanagar Municipality.
Followed by the presentation was the open floor discussion where the local representatives from different ward offices raised the issues and challenges that they came across during the household survey. They also provided feedback and suggestion for improve the data information system. Spoke person of the Ratnanagar Municipality Mr Rajendra Hamal facilitated the open floor session.