Squatter eviction deadline gets 3 more days
The Committee for Integrated Development of Bagmati has given squatters and landless residing on the banks of the Bagmati river three more days to leave their settlements.
On a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), the committee extended its 15-day deadline served to the landless squatting alongside Bagmati from Tilgana to Teku. Earlier, it had sent an SOS to the ministry seeking its support for forceful eviction of the squatters.
In the first week of November, the committee had directed the squatters to leave their huts by November 24. However, the latter ignored the fiat, saying that they won’t leave the place unless they are provided with appropriate alternatives, which later prompted the committee to seek MoHA’s help.
A meeting among the government bodies, including MoHA, Ministry of Physical Planning and Ministry of Environ-ment under the coordination of Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gachhadar on Sunday, decided to form a 17-member taskforce to execute the plan of forceful evacuation provided that the squatters ignore the warning.
The taskforce led by committee’s chairman Mahesh Bahadur Basnet has representation of three district administrative officers of the Kathmandu Valley, head of all the municipalities in the Valley, DIGs from three different security forces and other stakeholders. “The MoHA is ready for forceful evacuation if our last ultimatum is not followed,” Basnet said.
Earlier, the committee, which has been trying to bring the direct discharge of solid and liquid waste in Bagmati River to an end, faced resistance to execute its second phase of the project due to dense settlements on the Bagmati banks. It has already awarded a contract worth Rs 230 million to launch a sewage management programme from Tilganga to Minbhawan. Twenty-meter area on the either side of Bagmati, Bishnumati and Manohara is public land.
Raju Tamang, secretary of Nepal Settlement Protection Society, the organisation leading protests against the committee decision, claims around 23,000 squatters are residing in 64 settlements inside the Valley. “Everybody has the rights to food, cloth and shelter,” said Tamang. “We won’t leave our abode unless we are provided with appropriate alternatives,” he warned.
Posted on: 2011-11-28 08:51
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