The Butwal gathering of unorganized settlers and landless squatters has formed a 75-member National Coordination Committee under the chairmanship of Khagendra Poudel. The gathering held in Butwal on Sunday and Monday decided to hold a Kathmandu-centered protest against the government and formed a National Struggle Coordination Committee. 

The gathering has also made public additional programs for the struggle. A press conference has been scheduled in Kathmandu on Jestha 21, and a memorandum has been submitted to the Prime Minister, ministers, top leaders of political parties and human rights activists on Jestha 22. Similarly, it has been decided to hold a street interaction in Kathmandu on Jestha 23 in the presence of political party chiefs, land experts and stakeholders. 

Committee coordinator Khagendra Poudel said that preparations are also being made to organize a large-scale meeting in Kathmandu depending on the situation. ‘It has been decided to conduct a strong movement centered on Kathmandu at the national level under the third phase,’ he said. ‘We will continue to conduct march programs, sit-ins, demonstrations and vigil meetings centered on Singha Durbar if necessary.’ 

He said that a program has been prepared to conduct tent protests as a symbol of struggle in the places where squatters have been evicted, strengthen political and diplomatic initiatives, inform international human rights organizations, and draw formal attention to the United Nations housing rights body. 

Representatives from more than 20 districts across the country participated in the national gathering that began in Butwal on Sunday. The gathering of squatters, which held protests and programs on Sunday, elected its leadership on Monday. 

The gathering has passed a 13-point proposal and put forward a demand to immediately stop the distribution of land titles and the dozer terror.

Committee advisor Birendra BK said that it has been decided to make the movement nationwide and conduct a struggle program centered on Kathmandu. ‘The gathering has strongly demanded that the government immediately complete the remaining administrative and legal processes of the areas where the survey and mapping have been completed according to the Land Act and quickly distribute land titles to landless squatters and unorganized settlers,’ he said. 

The gathering demands that unorganized settlers be provided with land ownership certificates for housing and agricultural purposes at a low cost within the maximum area specified by the Land Act. The gathering has also urged the government to effectively implement the fundamental right to housing guaranteed by Article 37 of the Constitution. The gathering has passed a proposal to immediately complete the survey work in the areas that are yet to be surveyed and mapped by the previous commission and distribute the land ownership certificates to the concerned beneficiaries, and to continue the studies, documentation and survey work done by the previous commissions.

The gathering has demanded that the Tinau-Daanab Corridor victims in Butwal, the victims of the Motipur Industrial Area, and the affected citizens of the Mahendra Sanskrit University area in Dang, including the affected citizens, be managed in safe places with appropriate compensation. The gathering has warned the government to immediately stop the evictions, demolition of houses and huts and inhumane treatment of landless, Dalit and squatters across the country using dozers. The gathering has also put forward a demand for resettlement of families living in flood, landslide, inundation and other risky areas to safe and organized places.