Anand Singh Bhat, executive chairman of the powerful Bagmati Civilization Integrated Development Committee, said, ”We have stopped food in all holding centers. Now they have to manage it themselves.”
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On Monday morning, a canteen employee came to the slum dwellers living in the Red Cross Holding Center in Banepa, Kavre and said, ‘We will only feed you food until today. The canteen will be closed from tomorrow. Please make your own arrangements.’
After receiving the information that the food would be stopped suddenly, they asked about the reason.
‘In particular, we had been ordered to stop from the 19th. We were only given money for that time. We have helped for a few days because of your love. There is no possibility from tomorrow,’ Rima Pokharel, who lives in the holding center, said, quoting the canteen employee.
The slum dwellers living in the holding center are currently in great worry after the food was stopped. ‘How many of them are sick, how many children do they have, and the hardships are getting worse, and no one is even listening to our pleas,’ Rima expressed her grief.
Not everyone has received the 25,000 that the government has distributed for self-management, and even those who have received it cannot manage it on such a large scale. ‘Some have not even received that money. How is it possible that those who have received it can buy food, clothes, and all their belongings on the road with that much money,’ Rima said.
The displaced people of Sukum who were staying at ‘Kathmandu and Lodge’ in Mitranagar, Bus Park, Kathmandu are also confused after being evicted from there. Sabina Magar, who has been living there, said that they took to the streets since Monday morning because the hotel owner was pressuring them to vacate their rooms on Sunday. ‘They came to us on Sunday and pressured us to leave saying it was for the 19th. Now we don’t know where to go or what to do. We will go to our ancestral homes and protest,’ she said.
Sabina said that the hotel people have been mistreating them since they started staying there. ‘We were not treated well from the moment we started staying at the hotel. The hotel owner used abusive language. We were always served stale food. We were given flour mixed in the name of lentils and once-cooked lentils were served three times,’ she said.
Even though we were a family of six, the hotel gave us only one room and did not accommodate everyone, so we were forced to put our children with friends from the beginning. ‘But they only included six people including the children in the food. They did us nothing but injustice,’ she said.
A team led by Machakaji Maharjan, the project chief of the powerful Bagmati Civilization Integrated Development Committee, reached the holding center in Kharipati on Monday and urged us to leave the holding center, said Pawan Gurung, who is staying there.
Maharjan had suggested that we find a room ourselves, saying that staying here would cause illness and mental problems.
Pawan says that 25,000 people cannot manage after the house was destroyed. We have extended the time so many times. Now they have to manage it themselves,' he said.
The government had initially given a five-day deadline of 12th to leave the holding center and self-manage. Then, the deadline was extended to 19th. That too was due to the government's delay in sending the 25,000 rupees to be distributed by the government. The government had also promised to provide 15,000 rupees per month for three months to those who self-manage.
According to committee chairman Bhat, out of the 388 families currently living inside the holding center, money has gone into the accounts of 254 families. 'The rest did not apply, they stayed as leaders. Some did not have citizenship and documents, some made mistakes. We are also working on the case of those who did not get it,' he said. The money has not gone into the accounts of those outside the holding center. He said that they are also taking the process forward for this. Bhat said that people have already left various holding centers. 'Half the people have left Nagarkot, we have even helped some by sending vehicles,' he said, 'We will not extend the time now. The 19th is the last day. We will not expel them by firing guns and bombs, using force. We could have expelled them by sending police, but we did not do that.'
If the displaced people are to stay, they will have to arrange food and refreshments themselves, he said. 'In the case of those staying in hotels, we have also stopped their accommodation. Because 800 people have to stay a day. We have stopped the rest from eating,' he said.
