Rautahat, February 25 It has been 31 years since the squatters started living near Lamaha forest in Wadanamwar 6 of Chandrapur Municipality of Rautahat. Life is difficult in that place without any infrastructure. There are complaints that the landless residents have repeatedly appealed to the people's representatives for shelter and facilities but no one has listened to them.
There are 14 households in Lamaha area on the East-West Highway section. The 31-year-old settlement, which was started in 2044 BS, has no electricity, drinking water or school facilities. In this forested settlement, they only get assurance in the election. As it is a national forest area, the Division Forest Office has been pressuring the concerned bodies not to provide any kind of government facility.
According to Phulmaya Pulami, a local of the slum, it would be better if the government relocated them. He is saddened by the problems of the settlement but no one has fulfilled his promise so far. The locals have been forced to drink water from the well of Lamaha river for a long time. At first, there was a well in the river at a distance of 200 meters, but now it is a little closer, said Pulami. There is a problem of drinking water during summer and rainy season.
There is no electricity. This settlement is dependent on solar and Tuki. Since there is no school, most of the children spend their days playing and grazing goats. To reach the school and the market, one has to cross the forest to reach Chandranigahapur, 7 km east and Nijgadh, 12 km west. They came here in 2044 BS after the removal of settlements from Dhiyal and Dandunge villages of Makwanpur. He has complained that the government has given land to those who are hungry and those who have food and has sidelined those who do not have access. The economic condition of the slum dwellers is similarly miserable. Male wages and female children are engaged in goat rearing. There is fear of wild animals in the settlement here. During the time of Hem Bahadur Malla, the then Forest Minister of the Panchayat period, the hill settlement was removed and the new settlement of Gujra Municipality was shifted to Katani village.
Another local Phulmanya Pahari said that no one listened to the locals asking the mayor of Chandrapur Municipality, federal MPs and state MPs to connect drinking water and electricity. As it is a forest area, Division One has said that it is not allowed to build structures including electricity, schools and drinking water. This settlement should be relocated, says Binod Singh, head of Division Forest Office, Rautahat.
Mayor of Chandrapur Municipality Ram Chandra Chaudhary said that there is no plan to facilitate or relocate the Lamaha settlement. The basic education, health and nutrition programs implemented by the government have not reached this settlement. Former MP Devendra Patel said that care should be taken to manage or relocate the squatters.
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