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Kathmandu Friday May 18, 2001 Jestha 05, 2058.
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Biratnagar submetropolis seeks support to
remove encroachers
Post Report
MORANG, May 17 - The Biratnagar Sub-Metropolis authorities
admitted that they were helpless to evacuate people encroaching public lands in various
parts of the city area due to the lack of mutual understanding among the local political
parties.
Municipality Mayor Ramesh Chandra Poudel said about 15,000
huts have been built encroaching the government lands in all wards of the industrial city.
"None of the single piece of land has been left over
unoccupied," said Mayor Poudel. He accused other political parties and local
administration of not extending their support to the municipality to evacuate the
encroachers.
One of the major reasons behind the non-cooperation to the
municipality may be that almost all the people living in the public lands have been
included on the voter lists and they can play a decisive role in a local elections.
"Nobody wants to lose their vote bank," Poudel
said. Inspite of the political non-cooperation, the municipality has demolished around 300
sheds using its own security personnel.
But the encroachers clashed with the municipality’s
security personnel and vandalised a vehicle a few weeks ago.
Asked to make his party’s stance clear, Vice-Chairman of
the Nepali Congress Morang, Dilip Sapkota, said that his party was ready to demolish the
illegally-built huts. But he said an alternative arrangement had to be sought before the
people were dislocated.
District level leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress and the
main opposition CPN-UML accuse each other of trying to cash in the squatter issue on their
favour.
Mayor Poudel is also critical to an indifferent attitude of
the police administration that "does not fully cooperate with the municipality’s
plan of removing the encroachers from the occupied land."
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Rudra Bahadur Niraula,
however, denying the allegation said that they were only responsible for ensuring
security.
"The municipality cannot pass the buck to us. They
should first be fully determined to what they want to do," DSP Niraula said.
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