Open Letter to Prime Minister Balen Shah Regarding Demolition of Home

Greetings Prime Minister Balen Shah,

As I write this open letter, I am in my own house adjacent to Samakhusi River. You must be in the Prime Minister's residence. Surely, you and your family are well. But my family and I are terrified.

The land my house occupies is 2 ana. Just 2 ana. Because my father only had enough money to buy that much land. That house, built in 049 BS, was spared even by the earthquake.

I am writing this letter from that cramped house, with trembling hands. Because you are my Prime Minister. You sit in the well-furnished Baluwatar building with the money from taxes I pay, and with an order to demolish the roof built by my father, who saved every morsel, a flood of imbalance has entered our lives. The flood of your order is shrinking us, making us feel increasingly weak and helpless.

We had built a habitable house by gathering leaves, debris, and twigs. Today, you have ordered a bulldozer on it. Even though I have not erected a shack by violating any law of the state, any regulation of this country, or any section of the metropolis.

My 74-year-old father, who is battling death every moment with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, and my seven-decade-old mother, who cannot walk without support due to her broken leg, are stunned by the employees who came to implement your decision.

Is his silence not a matter of your concern? Is it not your responsibility to address his fearful psychology of old age?

However, in the algorithm of the propaganda machine of (a)social media that you have built, it is as if when I say my house is by the river, everyone thinks I am the number one encroacher in this country. My family too. But I must tell you my reality.

Even when the government first surveyed Kathmandu, my plot was the same size, it was there. Then a new survey came, and my father's plot number, bought with his blood and sweat, changed. In the old map, the plot number was 404, in the new map, it became 188. Nothing else changed. That is, I did not get that land by having influence or by being a 'Nepo Kid'. My father did not have ancestral land exceeding the land ceiling, and my mother did not have hundreds of tolas of gold brought as dowry. I could not have been a 'Nepo Kid' even if I wanted to.

Many like me did not even have the money to buy 2 ana of land by the river. I was by the river, but within the geography of Kathmandu. And I grew up by that river. I have watched the glory of Kathmandu and your rise to power from the banks of this river.

A team formed by the Chief District Officer of Kathmandu has marked my two-ana house for demolition today. That team included a contingent of police and employees from various offices! And even after all of them searched together, they could not find even an inch of public land that I had encroached upon. I have not occupied any land outside my land ownership certificate and map. Yet, they have drawn a red line to demolish my house, and the order is that I must vacate the house by Friday evening.

When a red mark was put to demolish my nest, I was told that the house built in 049 BS violated the river standards set by the government in 065 BS. How did my house do this? I don't understand anything. To understand further, I was told to go to the CDO's office.

I went to the CDO's office. I asked, did my house built in 049 BS violate the standards set by the government in 065 BS? And is that why you have ordered the demolition of my nest? The CDO's voice was loud. But his eyes were not on me. Looking at the roof of the CDO's office, he said, 'It was done on my orders.'

He said he ordered the demolition of my house's roof while looking at the roof above him. Is this contradiction not a matter of your concern, Prime Minister?

I admit, if I had built a 40-foot house after getting a 35-foot map approved! Then it would be considered that I had violated the state's law and acted defiantly. At that time, I would not have had the moral standing to speak. But here, I have not violated any law, any rule. Yet, what is the source of your desire to demolish my house?

I am also a citizen of this country. Drops of my father's and my sweat are mixed in the soil here. I have a share in the change of this country, in the construction of the constitution. I have an investment in every article of the constitution. What constitution and law gave you the authority to order the demolition of the house of an ordinary citizen like me, who invests in the governance of this country by obeying the law and paying taxes?

Don't you have to tell the citizens of this country about this? If the constitution and laws of this country must be obeyed by ordinary citizens, don't you have to obey them?

It is equally true that even when measured by a government team, not an inch of public land encroached by me was found!

On (a)social media, government and Rastriya Swatantra Party leaders are constantly talking about how to help us. But how does demolishing my house, built on my own land, help us? I don't understand. Who, why? On what legal basis, I still don't understand why an order was given to demolish my shelter built on my private land.

I saw the police contingent, I heard the CDO's loud voice, but don't you have to be publicly accountable for what good you are trying to do for the world by demolishing my shelter built on my private land? I still don't understand.

I also want to ask this question to my representatives. Let the local government and MPs or the head of the government party answer me. Why is my house being demolished? Whose eyes of wisdom are being opened by demolishing the roof of ordinary citizens like me in this country.

My question to our Prime Minister, the hero of the revolution of knowledge, is – what is the source of knowledge that necessitates the demolition of a shelter built on private land with a land ownership certificate and map?

My house's roof is being demolished, and my mind is full of questions. No one has answered those questions. A person's shelter can be demolished, Prime Minister, but the questions in their hearts cannot be demolished.