BHAKTAPUR, Aug 18: The Chagunarayan municipality in Bhaktapur today demolished illegal structures including houses and huts constructed on the roadsides and by encroaching on the community forest area in Nagarkot.
The owners of illegal structures clashed with a team reached the site to bulldoze houses and huts constructed unlawfully. The eviction drive followed a joint decision of the local government, Forest Office, District Administration and police administration. The Metropolitan Police Range Bhaktapur said it had to intervene as the owners started pelting stones at the team reached to tear down such structures.
Mushahar's endless suffering in no man's land
It had to resort to a baton charge to disperse the crowd. The owners burnt tyres as a protest against the demolition. The municipality a month ago had removed 20 commercial structures build illegally. Municipality mayor Som Prasad Mishra said that the decision was made to remove the illegally-built huts here some ten years ago but it was not implemented strictly.
It was stringently enforced this time. Mayor Mishra informed that the owners of those huts were informed repeatedly to relocate them. Many of those huts were houses as well eateries. Locals had demanded the removal of such huts, claiming that public land encroached and those running business in such huts were evading taxes.
There are around 300 huts in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Kavrepalanchowk that were built encroaching on the public land. Having removed the illegal-huts built along the Nagarkot to Bhaktapur areas, the local authority will soon remove the illegally-built huts in the area that is towards Kavrepalanchowk.
