When Baburam Bhattarai came to power last August, he promised to give the chocked roads of the Valley a major face-lift. A year later, streets around Kathmandu have been dug up, houses built illegally along roads have been demolished and all that remains are heaps of bricks and rubble. Sidewalks have vanished, bulldozers are lined up along major thoroughfares and the city has turned into a dust bowl.
Although locals of Maharajgunj, Baluwatar, Lazimpat, Kamalpokhari and Tahachal have been vocal in their protest against the government’s forceful demolition drive, it hasn’t stopped the Kathmandu Valley Town Development Committee from completely tearing down 100 houses and partially bulldozing a further 425 houses. More than Rs 30 million has already been spent on the demolition program and the Department of Roads’ purse is expected to be lighter by Rs 450 million by the time the new roads are completed.
Roads in Birganj, Pokhara and Biratnagar are also undergoing renovations. Bhattarai has promised to give Nepalis bigger, broader and better roads by Dasain. Let’s wait and watch.
ALL PICS: CLIFF THREADGOLD
The big question: locals of Hadigaun discuss where to move the rubble (26 April)
Last one standing: a house in Gyaneshwor awaits its destiny (7 May)
Recycling: a man finds useable bricks to rebuild near Gyaneshwor (7 May)
Almost choked: a boy clears the debris after houses in Gyaneshwor were bulldozed (8 May)
Bring down the wall: the remains of a half demolished wall in Bansbari (1 July)
Open all hours: a shopkeeper in Budhanilkantha keeps his business running even after half the building was torn down (1 July)
Returning home: a boy searches through the remains and rubble of his house in Hatigauda (1 July)
i am sick of the media using the phrase “illegally built houses.” Has any paper or TV ever conducted a research on when these houses were built?
here’s a case…my great grand father built a house in 1975 BS. the house still stands. the problem is, in 2033 BS, there came a new thing about wider roads. now the question is, does it make the house built 58 years before the new ‘maapdanda’ an illegal one?
how can a thing like media be so ignorant? you people have readers and regular followers. your publishing such bogus claims positions a group of people as frauds among some other groups of people that go solely by what you publish.
grow up people, there’s no such thing as free lunch. someone else is always paying for something good that you are having. the only thing is that there’s always a government propaganda and the paying part always lies behind the scene.
as for the media, you are only proliferating the propaganda.
having said all of that, i must admit, we all know that not all the houses (not only those that lie on the main roads, but also those in ‘gallis’ and inner residential areas) are perfectly legally built in Nepal. just because some 50% (say) houses breach the law, you cannot call them all (the whole 100%) illegal.
and yes, wider roads would definitely relieve the inside of ring-road of a lot of congestion, when built. let’s wait and watch…FYI, it’s been 4 years since the expansion campaign on Thirbam Sadak (Baluwatar route) came into being, only to yield no result till date.