Displaced Squatters Face Uncertainty After 100 Days of Balen Shah's Government

Kathmandu. Balen Shah led government has completed its hundred days in office. While the government is presenting a heap of its achievements during this period, thousands of landless citizens displaced from riverbanks and haphazard settlements are living in uncertainty and fear of the future. As the government completes its 100-day tenure, displaced landless people are currently forced to spend difficult days in holding centers in various places.

Currently, 24 families comprising 54 landless people are taking shelter in the holding center in Bode, Bhaktapur. 24 families have already left the holding center. They arrived here after the government demolished their houses and settlements without providing an alternative.

The displaced people including Goma Tiwari, Surveer Tiwari, Manju Tamang, Man Kumari Bisunkhe, Subhadra Neupane, and Pabitra Sapkota, who are staying in the holding center, have a single voice – the government should guarantee proper management of our future.

'We had a place to shelter our heads (home) either on the riverbank or in the landless settlement,' the displaced people complained collectively, 'Now we are homeless. The government should provide permanent management as quickly as it brought us here. Right now, we are in a state of being without government.'

The government has provided Rs 25,000 cash per month to the displaced families for temporary housing arrangements. However, this government assistance is like a drop in the ocean in the face of market inflation, and on the other hand, due to social discrimination, the landless people are not even able to find rooms to live in. According to the displaced people, when they go to search for rooms in the market, landlords refuse to rent them rooms after learning they are landless.

The victims say that Rs 25,000 per month is not enough to pay house rent, eat, and educate children in the Kathmandu Valley. Due to the societal perspective and the tendency of landlords not to rent rooms because they are landless, they are in further mental distress.

There is widespread criticism that the new government, instead of bringing a concrete framework for landless management in its first hundred days, has confined them to holding centers. While the government is recounting its achievements, 54 citizens in the Bode holding center are waiting for their secure future. The displaced citizens have a clear demand: instead of evading responsibility by providing temporary relief or monthly allowances, the government should respect the fundamental rights of citizens and arrange for proper and permanent housing. Photo: Nepal Photo Library