Squatters’ eviction: A handful of people register themselves
Very few people living on encroached land on the banks of rivers in Kathmandu Valley have registered themselves as squatters.
Substantiating the government’s claim that a majority of such residents are not real squatters, only 12 percent of the around 8,000 people living on the river banks filed applications for registration as the deadline given by the government to do so ended on Sunday.
With plans to evacuate the encroached settlements on the anvil, the government had asked the squatters to register themselves if they wanted an alternative place.
The Ministry of Physical Planning and Works had on January 16 tasked the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) with registering the squatters.
According to Sarita Maskey, the senior divisional engineer at DUDBC, only 1,082 people residing on the banks of the Bagmati from Sinamangal to Tekudovan filed applications claiming that they are “landless squatters”.
Following protests from the squatters against the decision to evict them from the river banks, a meeting of representatives from the environment ministry, land reforms ministry, physical planning ministry, Kathmandu Metropolitan City and chiefs of security agencies—in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar—on January 8 decided to invite the applications for registration.
According to Mahesh Bahadur Basnet, the coordinator of a taskforce formed to evict the squatters, they will investigate the applicants first. The genuine ones will be provided with an alternative for re-settlement.
The taskforce has stepped up preparations to evict the squatters as the 35-day deadline given by the Patan Appellate Court against the plan ended on Wednesday.
The 17-member taskforce comprising senior officials from various ministers and security forces has decided to launch the eviction campaign next week from the UN Park.
Posted on: 2012-01-23 10:13
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