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Kathmandu Tuesday December 18, 2001 Paush 03, 2058.
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Provide compensation
In a bid to beautify the capital for the 11th
SAARC summit, the Department of Roads (DoR) has demolished roadside buildings at Tinkune.
DoR also plans to demolish houses at Maitighar. The government is to build a green park at
Tinkune and a garden at Maitighar in time for the summit which begins January 4. As a
result, families living in these roadside structures have had to shift, leaving their
properties behind without any compensation in sight. The government informed them about
the planned demolition just two days beforehand. The houses have now been completely
demolished. Meanwhile, DoR has also black-topped and widened various roads in the capital.
This is encouraging. Such expansion will not only reduce traffic congestion but also
provide space for pedestrians. It is also true that many people, who built their houses,
have encroached on public land and violated basic construction rules. The demolitions at
Tinkune and Maitighar should discourage others from carrying out illegal constructions.
However, the occupants of the condemned structures should not have been evicted without
proper compensation. Unfortunately this is happening during a state of emergency, and may
give the emergency a bad name. It smacks of the high-handedness that the authorities
displayed when sprucing up the capital and its environs for an earlier SAARC summit in
1987. The then Panchayat dispensation browbeat the owners of street-front houses to give
their properties a fresh coat of paint, at the latter’s own expense of course. With
many families affected by the latest demolitions, the government cannot simply ignore the
issue. It has to respect their legal rights and provide due compensation so that they can
acquire shelter elsewhere. It should also realise that the capital needs more open public
spaces for a growing urban population instead of just a few greenery parks and gardens.
The government cleaned up the city in December
1998 also to prepare for the 11th SAARC summit, but without demolishing any roadside
properties. The country spent millions on the face-lift only to see the big event
postponed at the eleventh hour. It was deferred because of the military takeover in
Pakistan by Pervez Musharraf. India refused to share a SAARC summit platform with the
general who overthrew the democratically elected government in that country. And recent
political developments in the region, especially the terrorist suicide attack on the
Indian parliament building, have again cast some doubts over whether the 11th SAARC summit
will materialize this time. The summit, already postponed once, may again be hijacked as a
result of the bilateral differences that have erupted anew between India and Pakistan.
This time too the government has already spent millions preparing the venue for the
upcoming regional summit and safeguarding the premises. And this at a time when the
country is strapped for cash and its security machinery is stretched because of the
on-going Maoist insurgency in the countryside. Serious thought should now be given to
seeking some kind of compensation for the expenses incurred if the SAARC summit aborts
this time also. |
