Instead of erecting temporary huts elsewhere, the Kathmandu Valley Town Development Authority (KVTDA) will now resettle the evicted squatters among other landless families in other squatter settlements. “We´re no longer looking for a new place,” Keshav Sthapit, Kathmandu Town Development Commissioner, said. [berak]“Instead, we´ll resettle the evicted families in other squatter settlements.”
The former Kathmandu mayor has even persuaded the leaders of squatters into splitting the evicted families into groups for temporary relocation. Until two days ago, the evicted squatters had been urging the government to relocate them to the same place.
“We´ve agreed to split into various groups,” says Indra Tamang, coordinator of a struggle committee formed by the evicted squatters. “However, we´re not ready to move if the government wants us to settle down in uninhabited areas of Sundarighat and Balaju.”
Although they gave their consent to the government´s new relocation plan, the evicted squatters want a written agreement to this effect beforehand.
“We´re not ready to be talked into any program just like that,” Tamang says. “We want a written agreement.”
According to Sthapit, KVTDA will relocate around 15 of the evicted families, which are most vulnerable, to any other squatter settlements along the Bagmati River early next week. “In the first phase, I´ve selected mainly those families that have expectant mothers, widows, elderly and sick people,” says Sthapit. “Before this year´s Dashain festival, I´ll have relocated all the evicted families.”
KVTDA, which was given the responsibility for resettling the evicted families early this week by a cabinet meeting, decided to disperse the evicted families after the locals resisted the government´s relocation program in one place after another.
Previously, the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) had to back off from its plan to relocate squatters to Sundarighat, Balaju, Bauddha Ramhiti and Chobhar area in the Kathmandu valley.
The government had evicted 258 squatter families from the UN Park behind the Paropakar Maternity Hospital, Thapathali on May 8.
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