Nepali Congress Expresses Concern Over Displaced Citizens' Conditions, Decides on Action

Kathmandu. Nepali Congress has expressed concern that the condition of citizens forcibly displaced from slum settlements and kept in holding centers and temporary shelters is dire and inhumane. 

The party's Central Working Committee meeting held on Monday made a special four-point decision to protect the human rights of the displaced and fulfill their basic needs. Accordingly, Congress has decided to immediately form a special monitoring team to study the on-site conditions of health, food, drinking water, and security of the citizens in the holding centers. This team will prepare a detailed report of the on-site situation and submit it to the party, based on which further steps will be taken.

Congress opines that it is against democratic values and norms for the state to make its own citizens homeless and keep them like prisoners. The meeting has strongly drawn the government's attention to immediately identify and verify the genuine slum dwellers in those centers and relocate them with dignity to safe and long-term housing. 'The state's responsibility is to provide security and guardianship to its citizens, not to terrorize them,' the Congress's decision states.

Mentioning that helping citizens in distress is the party's main ideal, Congress has directed all its committees, sister, and well-wisher organizations to engage in relief efforts. All party workers have been called upon to provide immediate assistance by arranging food, clothing, medicine, and other essential materials to the helpless families in the holding centers and temporary camps.

Nepali Congress has decided to continuously create pressure on the government through both parliamentary and street means to protect the self-respect and fundamental rights of the displaced slum dwellers.

The party has pledged to make strong legal and policy advocacy against any inhumane behavior done in the guise of law enforcement, as stated in the press release issued by the party's acting chief secretary Krishna Prasad Dulal after the meeting.