‘Government held squatters hostage, bulldozers shattered trust’: Bhishma Raj Angdembe

Kathmandu. Main opposition Nepali Congress parliamentary party leader Bhishma Raj Angdembe has accused the government of using bulldozers in the squatters’ settlements without any preparation.

Presenting the motion of urgent public importance in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, he said thousands of citizens were in distress due to the stunts of the government. Angdembe presented the painful fact that three people lost their lives while evicting the squatters. Rabin Tamang, 19, committed suicide before operating a bulldozer in Manohara Basti, Indra Bahadur Rai, 61, was found dead in Bagmati River after his house collapsed in Balkhu and Bheshraj Darji, 36, died in Kirtipur Holding Centre due to lack of medical treatment.

“The bulldozer has not only demolished the sheds, but also shattered the hope of survival and snatched away the support of some families,” he said, adding, “It is a matter of shame for the state that new mothers and children are starving in the holding center.” ’

Angdembe took strong exception to the government’s firing in the incidents in Sunsari, Siraha, Dhanusha and Parsa. He demanded the formation of a judicial inquiry committee to investigate the fact-finding of these incidents.

He also questioned the government’s slow progress in preparedness and rescue activities even after weeks of floods, landslides in Ilam and Panchthar and highway disruptions.

Angdembe accused the incumbent government of only focusing on political appointments by scrapping the Land Commission but not seeking a solution to the problems of landless squatters.

Recalling the efforts made by the Nepali Congress in the previous parliament to amend the Land Related Act, he said that the government did not solve the problem by using bulldozers without any preparation, but only displaced them.

Angdembe urged the government through the parliament to apologize for the inhuman treatment meted out to the landless squatters and make immediate respectful arrangements.

He also demanded to make public an integrated action plan for the management of landless squatters, to carry out judicial investigation into the firing incident in the Tarai districts, to identify the genuine squatters and to adopt a legitimate way of relocating and rehabilitating them to safer places, and to make public the details of those who have encroached more than the limit in the name of power and to use such land for the management of the landless.