The municipality issued a public notice last Sunday requesting the removal of temporary and permanent structures built on government and public land.
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The Katari Municipality of Udayapur has issued a 30-day ultimatum to remove encroachment on government and public land, and the 'Public Land Conservation Campaign' that began in Katari a decade ago has come into the spotlight again.
The municipality issued a public notice on Sunday requesting the removal of temporary and permanent structures built on government and public land. The notice states that if the encroached area is not vacated within 30 days, the process will be taken forward as per the law.
The campaign to protect public land in Katari is not new. In 2072 BS, the municipality had started a campaign to vacate public land under the leadership of the then Executive Officer Dambru Dahal.
On 11th Shrawan 2072 BS, the municipality meeting had issued a 15-day and 24-hour notice to those who had built temporary houses and huts in the bus park area and directed them to remove the structures. After the warning was not heeded, it was also decided to use force in coordination with security agencies. At that time, the municipality was preparing to use a dozer.
Finally, the bus park area was cleared by managing the landless squatters. After that, the municipality started a campaign to protect public land throughout the city. A committee formed on the basis of an all-party decision had identified the areas where public land was encroached and used a dozer. At that time, the committee formed had submitted a detailed report on public land protection to the municipality.
In 2072 BS, even the ward civic forums were instructed not to allow encroachment on public land in their areas. Even after this, the process of protecting public land did not stop. On 24th Shrawan 2073 BS, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority sent a letter to Katari Municipality, instructing it to vacate the land remaining to be distributed by the Slum Problem Resolution Commission and the areas encroached after the change in the flow of the Maruwa River.
After the local level elections, on 20th Chaitra 2074 BS, the then Mayor Gyanendra Shrestha issued a 15-day notice stating that public land had been encroached on in Ward 4. But even then, the encroachment did not stop, but rather spread gradually. On 27 Kartik 2076, the then ward chair Krishnaraj Danuwar wrote to the municipality to stop the construction of unauthorized houses and huts within the ward.
On 25 Falgun 2077, a letter signed by the then Deputy Mayor Bhim Kumari Raut instructed the municipality to stop the construction, saying that houses were being built along the river. In the meantime, the municipality had already uploaded the field book through the Land Revenue and Survey Office. The then Chief Administrative Officers Amar Prasad Bhatta and Indra Kumar Sah had written a formal letter for the same. However, the encroachment did not stop. On 5 Jestha 2078, the situation became tense when the municipality brought a dozer to demolish the structure. A clash-like situation arose between the locals and the municipality. Res Bahadur Sunuwar, Simon Lama, Dil Bahadur Thapa and others protested, while the incident of damage to the houses of the then mayor, deputy mayor, ward chair and municipal engineer reached the court.
The area encroached upon after the flow of the Maruwa River changed has not yet been fully protected. The then Mayor Gyanendra Shrestha said that he was on a campaign to protect public property. ‘That was not my private land, it was the property of the city and everyone,’ he said. He said that the municipality was forced to take a dozer to it after the rapid construction of structures started during the lockdown during the Corona period.
The agitating party had protested that the house was demolished during the lockdown. Balkrishna Thapa, the chairman of the Land Rights Forum Katari, who was active in the movement at that time, is currently the regional chairman of the National Independent Party. He has been accused of buying and selling land in the flow area on the basis of bribery. Thapa, on the other hand, has claimed that his land falls within ‘No. 7 Phantbari’ and has said that he has the right to it.
According to Prakash Raut, information officer at the Land Revenue Office Katari, ‘Phantbari’ is a word used according to old customs, which is not officially in use now. According to him, such lands are usually disputed or public in nature. After the Kathmandu Metropolitan City launched an intensive dozer campaign to protect public land, pressure has increased in Katari to clear encroached areas across the city. Now, after the municipality issued another 30-day notice, the decade-long campaign has come into the spotlight again.
The current mayor, Rajesh Chandra Shrestha, said that the executive meeting had decided to take legal action if government land is encroached. However, he said that landless squatters, unorganized settlers and those in the process of obtaining land titles have been urged to remain calm. The municipality has stated that after collecting data, surveying and studying, it will separate the actual squatters and encroachers and proceed with the legal process.
