Kohalpur Municipality Demolishes 751 Encroaching Structures

Nepalgunj. Banke's Kohalpur Municipality has removed 751 houses and structures built by encroaching on public and government land. The houses and structures encroaching near the cricket ground in Kohalpur Municipality-11 were removed within a period of about four days.

Kohalpur Municipality Mayor Purna Prasad Acharya informed that most people took their belongings, windows, and doors themselves, and the remaining structures were removed. He informed that the municipality will manage the actual landless people by providing them with a livelihood allowance and that the number of people staying in the 'holding center' is also decreasing.

Mentioning that demolishing settlements is not a matter of choice, Mayor Acharya said that on the first day, mosquito nets were distributed with the aim of fulfilling basic needs, and a package worth about Rs 5 lakh including 25 kg of rice and five kg of lentils was prepared, but it was postponed due to further difficulties in distribution and a notice was published. Currently, the municipality has received details of 102 houses.

He said, "Arrangements will be made for some land for the actual landless people if possible, otherwise, they will be provided with a livelihood allowance by making a procedure." After Kohalpur Municipality bulldozed the settlement near the cricket ground in Ward No. 11, the affected families have been temporarily housed in the Kohalpur New Buspark building.

Many families staying in the holding center have expressed concern that they do not own any land and are worried about their future. "We don't know how long we will have to stay like this," said Prem BK, who is staying in the holding center. Kohalpur Municipality has housed families in groups according to the number of families on three floors of the buspark building.

Affected people said that most of the families who earn a living by working as daily wage laborers are running out of food and are facing a food crisis. They have requested the municipality to at least arrange for their rations.

Some women landless people said that they are facing inconvenience and privacy issues due to having to live together in the same hall, men and women. Most of the residents there are from Dalit and Madhesi communities. There are 279 people in the center. Among them are about 60 children. The municipality has stated that the number of families staying in the holding center is decreasing.

Meanwhile, human rights and legal rights activists from various organizations in Banke have conducted an on-site inspection of the holding center established by Kohalpur Municipality. A team led by senior advocate Sunil Kumar Shrestha, coordinator of the Public Interest Law Practitioners Group, gathered information about the landless people taking shelter in the holding center.

The team met with Kohalpur Municipality Mayor Purna Prasad Acharya, Municipality Ishwariprasad BK, and former chairman of the Land Problems Resolution Commission Banke, Ghannath Khanal, and obtained information about the incident.

There are more than 53,700 landless families in Banke. With the dissolution of the Landless Commission, further uncertainty has arisen due to the halt in work such as distribution of land ownership certificates, measurement, and revenue collection.