460 households and about 3000 households in Dhangadhi sub-metropolitan city-11 and 13 and Godavari municipality-5 are affected due to airport expansion confusion.
Bhagarathi Bohra's family was displaced seven years ago from Jhalari in Shuklaphanta Municipality-7 of Kanchanpur during the expansion of the Mahakali irrigation project. 13 acres of land including a 5-room concrete house was lost in the irrigation canal that came through Jhalari through Tanakpur, Banwasa. After living in Janten Khar's house for 3 years, his family moved to Geta (Dhangadhi) airport in 078. In the same year, there was talk of upgrading Dhangadhi airport.
The government planned to acquire 258 bigha of land for the expansion of the airport. She has built a house near the airport and is worried about being displaced again for four years . She says, "We can be displaced anytime". If the government has given the budget, the work of expansion can start now.'
His five-room house, which is less than 500 meters from the airport, is unfinished. We will build a house but we have not finished it. I don't know when I will wake up,' she said.
Bhagarathi is not alone in this pain. The situation of other settlements around the airport is also the same. Local residents outside the Charqilla area are in fear of displacement. Locals have registered a complaint at the National Human Rights Commission Sudurpaschim Province office saying that the confusion has directly affected basic services such as village, housing, livelihood and education-health. A complaint was registered on May 16 under the leadership of Lal Bahadur Mahara. They allege that the process was carried forward unilaterally without consulting the residents of the affected slums when the ministers reached Geta Airport twice in the past and announced the upgrading.
Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Yogesh Bhattarai in 076 and Minister Prem Bahadur Ali in 078 gave public statements about the expansion of the airport. After that, even though DPR preparations have been started, no clear information has been given about the livelihood, housing, education, health and land acquisition of the locals, nor has any compensation plan been made public.
In the complaint registered with the National Human Rights Commission, it has been mentioned that psychological terror has been created in the slums by violating the fundamental rights, Article 25 (right to property), Article 36 (right to food), Article 37 (right to housing) and Article 38 related to women. According to the locals, the area around the airport has been called 'risky', services will be stopped, financial transactions will be stopped, there will be problems in buying and selling of land, and social services will be interrupted. A local said that due to this problem, he could not sell the land and build a new structure. We are neither in a position to sell the land, nor are we able to build a new structure. Basic services such as schools, health posts, drinking water, and electricity have been interrupted, he said.
The locals have asked the Airport Office, Chief District Officer, Ministry of Home Affairs and other agencies to issue necessary instructions through the Human Rights Commission saying that the slums around the airport have been turned into crisis zones. He has also requested the Commission to conduct an on-site inspection and prepare a report and make necessary recommendations in this regard.
Lokraj Bhatt, the coordinator of the Geta Airport Basti Coordination Committee, complains that the land around the airport is not even mortgaged to the bank. "We were happy that we would have the convenience of being close to the airport." But now the airport does not allow us to sleep. Our government has become without a husband," he said, "The land bank here does not accept mortgages. We have not been able to use our own land properly.' Bhatt said that the government's acquisition of land for the airport will be less valuable than private purchase and sale. He alleges that despite speaking to the relevant authorities several times, no one took it seriously. According to him, 460 households and about 3,000 households in Dhangadhi sub-metropolis-11 and 13 and Godavari municipality-5 have been affected by the airport expansion confusion.
Budget not released
On 11th January 2018, the meeting of Nepal Civil Aviation Authority chaired by the then Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale decided to allocate one billion budget. To develop Dhangadhi as a regional airport, it was said to acquire 250 bighas of land and increase the runway of 1,800 meters to 2,500 meters.
Although the Council of Ministers passed the master plan prepared by the authority in the financial year 2077/78, the budget was not allocated. The Authority Board chaired by the then Minister of Tourism could not proceed with any further work other than approving the master plan on 11 January 2017. Three years ago, it was estimated that it would cost 15 to 16 billion to acquire local land for airport expansion. The information officer of the airport, Vidya Sah, informed that the land acquisition work could not proceed since the source of the budget, which was said to have been allocated one billion earlier, was not confirmed. The airport expansion plan is not included in the budget for the next financial year 082/83.
Dhangadhi needs an additional 258.25 bigha of land to build a regional airport, but now this plan is stalled. The master plan includes the construction of infrastructure including a 45 meter wide 2550 meter long runway, modern terminal building, parking apron, hangar, helipad, cargo building, fuel station, fire fighting station and rescue, ring road.
Although the expansion plan has been stalled, the fear of the plan has not decreased among the local residents . Their demand is that whatever decision the government takes, it should be done quickly. "If we were to be picked up from here, the government should have given us compensation according to the customs of the land and sent us away." If not, you should be able to live without fear. How long will we live in fear,' a local asked .
Chief District Officer Gogan Bahadur Hamal said that he has no information about the impact of the airport expansion plan on local residents. However, the locals have said that they have also submitted their complaints to the Chief District Officer.
Airport chief Ganesh Bahadur Singh says that no process has been carried out for upgrading the airport. "There is no budget, how to upgrade," he said. He said that he did not know about the fact that the local people were not consulted when the DPR was prepared in 078 because he was not the chief at that time.
He also disagrees with some of the complaints of the locals around Charqilla . He said that the authority did not stop the bank from keeping the land due to the complaint of the local people that the bank did not agree to mortgage the land. Admitting that the valuation of the land to be taken by the airport is low, he said, "The government rate is low, that's why the valuation is low." They look for the market price. As the airport is a sensitive area, it is natural to have some anxiety in the surrounding settlements.
According to Nepal's Land Acquisition Act 2034, the government can acquire land by paying compensation for public purposes. Section 3 of the Compensation Act provides that (a) the guidelines given by the Government of Nepal from time to time regarding compensation, and (b) compensation should be determined on the basis of the loss suffered by the concerned person if he moves from his place of residence or business due to the acquisition of land . In Section 18 of the Act, there is a provision that a person who is not satisfied with the compensation can file a complaint with the Ministry of Home Affairs within 15 days from the date of issuance of the notice.
National Human Rights Commission Far West Province Head Prakash Dutt Bhatt said that the Airport Settlement Coordination Committee has registered a complaint with the Commission saying that basic services such as village, housing, livelihood and education-health have been directly affected and fundamental rights have been violated. According to him, the Oyog will monitor, investigate and interact with all the victims and affected people in the area where the complaint has been filed under Article 249 of the Constitution and instruct the relevant agencies to draw attention to it. He said that the rights given to citizens by the constitution should not be violated under any pretext.
