Two and a half decades after living in a slum in Thapathali, 43-year-old Kumari Tamang became homeless again on April 12. She cried profusely as a government bulldozer drove through the rubble where she had raised her children.

The police came in droves and kept asking her where she had moved her belongings. After her house collapsed, she went to the government-designated Dasharath Stadium to register her name, from where she was taken to Hotel Tokyo Town in Balaju. She felt immediate relief, but after eight days in the hotel, her anxiety has started to increase. Those who come to visit her say, ‘You can’t stay in a hotel for a long time.’ But no one has told her what will happen after the hotel.

‘I don’t know who will pay the bill at the hotel, we don’t have any money,’ Tamang told Kantipur, ‘We haven’t received any other news since we came to write down our names.’ 143 families had been living in the slums in Thapathali. Of these, 6 families have been living since 2035, two families since 2060 and 135 families since 2063.

Like Kumari, 40-year-old Sangeeta Singh is also worried about when she will have to move out of the hotel. She had been living in a small hut in the slums in Shantinagar. However, after the government used a dozer, she and her three children had to move out. After her inter-caste love marriage, her family rejected her and she ran away to the city. After that, she had been earning a living by working as a laborer.

After the dozer was used at home, she was unable to work. The government took her to Hotel Mission Baglung, but since she left the hotel, not only has work stopped, but her children have not been able to go to school. ‘I don’t know how long they will keep her here, what they will do,’ she says. 476 families were living in the squatter settlement in Shantinagar. According to the data of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, one family had been living in Shantinagar since 2038 and 138 families since 2046.

According to the report prepared by the empowered Bagmati Civilization Integrated Development Committee in 2079, there are 3,496 households living in unorganized settlements on the banks of the river in the valley. Of these, 2,245 are in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, 90 in Kageshwari Municipality, 156 in Budhanilkantha, 17 in Lalitpur Metropolitan City and 773 in Bhaktapur Municipality. The government has been mobilizing the police and using dozers in all areas of the valley since last week.

327 other families like Kumari and Sangita, who were made homeless by the government bulldozer, have been housed in hotels and lodges in the Balaju and Machhapokhari areas of Kathmandu. 146 families have been housed in the Training Management Department of the Nepal Electricity Authority Engineering Services Directorate in Khatipati. Another 146 families have been housed in the Radhaswamy Ashram in Bhaktapur, and 16 families have been housed in the Agricultural Training Center in Bode, said Dilip Bhandari, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development.

According to the ministry, so far, 794 families, who were registered as homeless by the bulldozer in the slums of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur, have been housed under temporary management. Ministry officials say that they are being provided with food, health care and psychological counseling there. However, it is not yet decided how long they will be kept in hotels, lodges and temporary managed houses. "We are encouraging them to stay there if they have relatives or others, if they have a place to stay," Bhandari said. "We have explained that after registering their names and verifying them, they will get the facilities they need. However, the government will help those who are really in trouble, and will not make them suffer."

Hoteliers are unaware of how and when the rent and food expenses of those staying in the lodge will be paid. Suresh Baral, president of the Kathmandu District Hoteliers Association, says, "The city has been told that the hotel rent will be paid, but there is no information about how long they will be kept." According to him, the squatters were kept in the hotel after the city said that the money would be paid by the city in coordination with the local level. In such a situation, the squatters are unaware of what the long-term solution will be.

Land rights activist Jagat Deuja says that the issue of management should be thought about before the squatters are forced to sit on the ground, but that is not the case. ‘When you think about it now, many things have already gone wrong. For long-term management, records were needed earlier, which the government is finally taking up,’ he said. ‘Now that this situation has arisen, I think we need to think about three things: the situation of keeping them in a holding center, the situation of managing them from there to another place, and long-term management.’

He says that while staying in a holding center, along with the protection of those who have taken refuge in the government, an environment should be created in which other rights are not violated. ‘There are issues of education, many have lost their jobs, what the state does about it may be important,’ Deuja said. ‘There may be short-term rental somewhere or some other options.’

He says that land and housing facilities should be provided in a specific place in the long term. ‘The government had provided funds for reconstruction during the earthquake, but at that time the victims had land and some materials,’ Deuja adds, ‘In the current situation, there is no land, so its management is difficult.’ He says that in other countries, when squatters are removed and moved away or placed in one place, they are unable to stay there due to employment and other reasons.

The government has no other option for long-term management except for the apartments built for squatters in Ichangunarayan. Officials say that even there, it can accommodate only 45 families. The same building now houses the ward office and a human services ashram. The then government led by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai had built three buildings at a cost of Rs 120 million for squatters.

According to officials from the Ministry of Urban Development, discussions are underway on how to manage the long-term needs of those who have been seeking government assistance. ‘We are working to ensure that there is no inconvenience for them now, and we will inform them soon about what to do in the long term,’ says Joint Secretary Bhandari of the ministry.

According to officials from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, preparations are underway to send those registered as squatters elsewhere from the holding center after verification. ‘Now, discussions are underway on whether to provide a lump sum relief amount and monthly rent to them after identifying them as actual squatters,’ said an official from the office. ‘After that, we will think about other long-term measures.’

1,816 families have registered their names at the stadium, saying they were displaced after the government used a bulldozer. There are 7,789 people in those families. Prime Minister Balendra Shah had tried to remove the squatter settlements when he was the mayor of Kathmandu. The federal government did not support him. Even when he was the home minister from Narayan Kaji Shrestha to Ravi Lamichhane, he had asked for help in removing the squatters. But they did not support Shah.

He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of which Lamichhane is now the president, and became the prime minister, and he cleared the squatter settlements. After Shah became the prime minister, the government's '100 agendas for government reforms' stated that the collection and verification of integrated digital data of landless squatters and unorganized settlers across the country would be completed within 60 days.