Citizenship certificates and land will be distributed to the landless simultaneously, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deupa told parliament Sunday.

“No Nepali citizen should be deprived of an opportunity to get land because he does not have a citizenship certificate. His Majesty’s Government is committed to take specific legal measures with the support of all parties so that all genuine Nepali citizens who have not got citizenship certificates get the document.

“The citizenship issue will be settled before land distribution and the two programmes will be implemented simultaneously,” Duba told the House of Representatives.

The Supreme Court this year ruled an amendment by parliament to an act to ease stiff citizenship citizenship rules were unconstitutional. Landlords will be “adequately compensated ” for land seized from them, Deuba said.

Local landless and underprivileged people will get priority in land allocation, Deuba said. Legislators of the Nepal Rashtriya Prajatantra Party and the Nepal Sadbavana Party shouted slogans against Deuba and demanded a ceiling on property instead of land as he made the policy statement.

Marshals stopped the two opposition party members from approaching the Speaker’s chair to disrupt house proceedings. Government last week introduced a bill in parliament to reduce land ceiling.