‘Squatters were pushed from one risk to another’: Angdembe

Kathmandu. Main opposition Nepali Congress parliamentary party leader Bhishma Raj Aangdembe has expressed serious concern over the government’s move to put the people who have been evicted from the slums at greater risk.

In a statement issued on Sunday, he also questioned Prime Minister Balen’s public commitment to ensure the safe management of landless squatters. “I still remember one of the public commitments made by the Prime Minister – that arrangements will be made for the safe and orderly relocation of the people living in unsafe places at risk of their lives. Today, I want to ask the Prime Minister. Where did that commitment disappear?

According to him, the fact that the government has not freed the squatters from the risk but has pushed them out of one risk and pushed them to another dreadful risk after the holding center of Kirtipur was inundated.

“The landless squatters, who were assured of safe shelter, are once again forced to live a painful life amidst hunger, water, mud, scarcity and insecurity,” he said. “This is a glaring example of the irresponsibility, insensitivity and failed governance of the state in failing to fulfill its public commitments made to the landless squatters,” he said.

Angdembe also objected to the government’s attempt to restrict the right to raise questions. “What is even more tragic and shameful is that youths including Majid Ansari were forcibly taken into custody when they went to the holding centre to understand the plight of the victims and sought answers from the government. I want to ask, since when did it become a crime to ask questions in a democratic system?”

“Prime Minister Balen’s failure to live up to his promises is an attack on democracy, freedom of expression and civil rights,” he said.

Urging Prime Minister Balen to answer the promises made to the landless squatters, he said, “Prime Minister, please answer the promises made to the landless squatters. Because history will judge not your empty speeches, but whether your promises to citizens have been fulfilled or not. ’