Pokhara Intensifies Public Land Protection Campaign

Pokhara. Pokhara Metropolitan City has intensified the campaign to protect public land and control encroachment. Citizens have praised and fully supported this campaign in the public hearing organized by the metropolis. Participants said that the role played by the metropolis in removing encroached structures in areas including Pokhara Buspark, Firkhe River, and Amar Singh Chowk was positive. They suggested that the buspark should be constructed on the 187 ropanis of land acquired for the buspark and that the 'Firkhe Corridor' should be started immediately after the boundary of the Firkhe River is confirmed. The metropolis had recently removed illegal structures in those areas using bulldozers. 

Responding to the questions raised in the program, Metropolitan Chief Dhanraj Acharya expressed his commitment that the metropolis will not back down from the campaign to protect public land. He said that encroaching public land under any pretext is unacceptable and this campaign will continue. He informed that an integrated land record of public land within the metropolis is being collected and its details will be made public within a few time. According to preliminary estimates, there is about 81 thousand ropanis of public land in Pokhara, including forest areas. Acharya clarified that after the exact land record of that land is prepared, if anyone is found to have encroached, they will be immediately notified to vacate, and if they do not comply, the metropolis will remove the encroachment itself according to legal procedures.

The metropolis has put forward a plan to build playgrounds and parks in all 33 wards. Mayor Acharya said that the work of constructing a systematic buspark will start only after the proper management of the landless people living in the buspark area. The metropolis has stated that the work of confirming the land of Tundikhel in Pokhara-1 will also be started soon. The metropolis has called on anyone who has private structures or businesses on land that is illegally encroached upon, such as roads, canals, fields, and other public places, to vacate it themselves, stating that encroaching such land is against the law.

At the public hearing, locals also raised questions about various aspects of the metropolis's service delivery and development construction. - News Agency Nepal