A parliamentary committee has directed the government to remove the unmanaged squatters from the Bagmati corridor within six months.
The decision was taken during a meeting of the Infrastructure Development Committee of the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
According to committee secretary Uday Kumar Bhandari, the government has been directed to manage all illegal settlers living along the Bagmati corridor and vacate the area within six months.
Bhandari further added that the committee would conduct an on-site inspection of the corridor in coordination with the High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilization.
The committee has also asked the government authorities to deposit the 0.5 per cent fees taken during ownership transfer of land and property, from all 18 municipalities within the Kathmandu Valley, to the high-powered committee’s fund.
The collected amount will be used for river water filtration, beautification and preservation of historic infrastructures, and to preserve the essence of the Bagmati river, Bhandari said.
The move also aims to make the Capital a better place to live.
As many as 34,096 squatter families are currently residing on the banks of Bagmati River, according to the high-powered committee.
The committee’s move is not the first of its kind. The committee and the Kathmandu Metropolitan City had demolished the settlements in 2017.
In May 2012, the Baburam Bhattarai-led government demolished 251 squatter huts in Thapathali by deploying over 1,000 security personnel. To relocate the squatters, the government had then built a settlement at Ichangu Narayan in Nagarjun hills, spending Rs 230 million. The project proved to be a disaster as nobody moved in.
Again on November 28, 2022, Kathmandu Metropolitan City Police personnel and people from the squatters settlement along the Bagmati River in Thapathali clashed after the former reached the settlement to evacuate the squatters.
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