Rs 5,000 monthly for squatters
- Only real landless people to get govt succour
Softening its stand on the much-talked about eviction of squatters under pressure from various quarters, the government is likely to provide Rs 5,000 per month in house rent to each real landless family.
A meeting of the taskforce formed to evict the people residing on the encroached river banks in the Kathmandu Valley with Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gachhadar on Saturday had decided to pay house rents to those who have registered themselves as the real landless people. According to taskforce coordinator Mahesh Bahadur Basnet, out of 8,000 residing alongside river banks 1,082 will receive house rents for three months as a temporary measure.
The Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW) is scheduled to table a proposal in next Cabinet meeting to decide on the agreed rent amount of Rs 5,000 per month. If the plan is endorsed, the government have to cough up around Rs 5.4 million per month and around Rs 16.2 million in three months.
A three-day notice will be forwarded to the registered squatters asking them to apply for rents and the eviction plan will be executed from the fourth day.
Basnet said the amount will be provided only after studying the status of those registered as the squatters. “The rent is just a temporary solution. The long term settlement plan will be designed in accordance with the recommendations of National Squatters’ Commission,” said Basnet. The plan to clear encroachers from river banks from January 29 was postponed flowing protests from various political bodies and I/NGOs.
Substantiating government claims that majority of the occupants are not real squatters, only 12 percent people registered them during a week long period provided by the government. The MoPPW on January 16 had tasked the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction to register the squatters if they wanted alternative places.
Posted on: 2012-02-01 07:26
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