As per the decision of an all-party meeting held last week, a team of forest staffers along with security personnel had reached the settlement to bring down the illegally built huts in the forest but were obstructed by group led by CPN-Maoist district secretary Imaswar Devkota.[break]
After the forest team had destroyed around a dozen illegally built huts in the forest area of Khalanga-2, Thaple Chaur, the Maoist cadres including Devkota and office secretary Pratap Jaisi reached the spot chanting slogans against the local administration and the forest office.
“No one has the right to destroy people´s houses,” said Jaisi.
The illegal settlers along with the Maoists also took out a rally through the major thoroughfares of Khalanga bazaar chanting slogans against the police and local administration. The rally converged into a a corner meeting, where they issued a statement protesting the government´s move to "remove the poor from public land".
As per the decision of the all-party meeting, the 160 illegally built huts in the forest area were to be brought down in three phases. According to acting chief of District Forest Office, Bhim Prasad Paudel, the forest team had reached the spot on Tuesday to pull down 31 houses in the first phase.
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