Land Rights Struggle in Kaski: Squatters Demand Ownership and Fair Management

For decades, we have fought for at least a piece of land as citizens of this country. If the constitution were to be read, no citizen would have to fight for such a small right, but no one wanted to implement the constitution. We are fighting for food, shelter, and clothing. We have only one dream – a piece of land in our own name, a shelter to protect us from sun and rain, and a secure future for our children.

Twenty-three years have passed since we started this struggle, yet we haven't received land ownership certificates, let alone the status of citizens. We have citizenship, but citizenship alone is not proof of being a citizen. When we don't even have an environment to live in the country, that citizenship doesn't provide sustenance.

The squatter settlements in Kaski are watered with the sweat and tears of thousands of people. From the outside, we are being portrayed as criminals who have encroached upon land. We have to come out on the streets ourselves to say we are not criminals. Factually speaking, a cloud of fear is hovering over the squatter settlements in various areas of Pokhara Metropolitan City, where people have been living for years. The state takes records in the name of squatters, collects files, and sometimes measures the land. This effort is good. We live in fear of bulldozers in our settlements. From the day the state has talked about running bulldozers on these lands, we haven't been able to sleep.

Some have been living here for 23 years, some for over 50 years. We didn't come here by choice! We were driven here by the country's poverty and the then conflict. No one chooses to live in such a place by choice. According to our own data, there are over 30,000 landless and land-poor squatters and unorganized residents in Kaski. About 25,000 have come under the state's reach. The rest are still outside the state's statistics.

Pokhara Metropolitan City has also distributed notices to about 20,000 people. More pressing than squatters and landless Dalits in Kaski is the problem of unorganized residents. About 50 percent of the citizens are unorganized residents.

We have one question for the state: 'What development is achieved by demolishing a hut built by a poor person over years? Is removing squatter settlements without organizing them development? We are not against development; we are in favor of organized settlement.

We also wish for an international-standard bus park to be built in Pokhara. We have met and discussed with the Mayor and local representatives multiple times. After the Metropolitan City issued a 35-day notice on April 4, we formed a struggle committee on the 12th for the fight for our rights. On the 21st, a memorandum was submitted with a large demonstration. When the Mayor asked the struggle committee to come for talks by making it a facilitation committee, we made the struggle committee a facilitation committee.

The meeting on the 23rd formed the facilitation committee, but the facilitation from the government's side is not happening as it should. The state is deceiving us. In the context of Kaski, the state's behavior in the name of squatters is quite discriminatory. Meanwhile, records of squatters and landless people have been taken. About 600 people have submitted applications from the bus park area alone. Now, will their applications only be taken, or will they be managed too?

We all have a special interest in how squatter settlements should be managed. In repeated talks, the government has said that alternatives will be provided, but what alternatives are not clear.

The state should understand that our desire is not a donation or a gift. It is a citizen's right, a constitutional right. We do not want to be a burden on the state's treasury. Our first condition in the management process is to be managed in the same ward where we are currently located. Many have registered their details from Ward No. 9. All state documents are from this ward. Therefore, our demand is to be relocated to a place within Ward 9.

If it is not possible to live in that place due to technical or security reasons, the state should relocate squatters within the metropolitan city in a way that is satisfactory to them, but all this will happen through talks and dialogue. When we are ready to make the struggle committee a facilitation committee, the state should not consider it a weakness.

If there is an attempt to weaken us, the struggle committee can be revived. We are ready for all levels of struggle to obtain our rights. After moving from this place, there should be necessary infrastructure for livelihood, schools, health centers, and a secure environment in the relocated place. We have been repeatedly telling the Metropolitan City this. Our main demand is the investigation of 'Hukum Basis' (influential people posing as squatters) in the name of squatters. Real landless families should be identified and managed. Beyond that, we are not in favor of 'Hukum Basis'. They can even be punished. Simply pushing or intimidating the poor in the name of management will not solve the problem.

What are our demands?

1. The classification of unorganized residents, real squatters, and fake squatters should be done immediately.

2. Ownership of the land where we have been living for decades should be given. If not possible, relocation to a suitable place within the concerned ward should be done.

3. The policy of protecting encroachment by the influential and running bulldozers over the huts of the poor should be stopped immediately.

Until today, the state has only played politics with us. Squatter settlements were weakened by considering them vote banks. This continuity should now be broken. We are ready to vacate land for important development constructions like the Pokhara Bus Park. Our proper management is the first condition. Politics has been played with our blood, sweat, and children's future by the state. If our demands are further ignored by the state, the struggle will intensify. This is also a fight for our existence. We demand a solution through dialogue with the state. We believe this will be fulfilled.

(The author is the coordinator of the Squatter Struggle Committee, Kaski. Recently, he has become the coordinator of the facilitation committee.)