Kathmandu, November 13:

Officials at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City say the civic body does not have any plans to pull down slums built on the banks of the rivers and rehabilitate the slum-dwellers.

In the budget speech, Finance Minister, Babu Ram Bhattarai, had said that the government would demolish the shanties and rehabilitate the encroachers.

Bimal Rijal, department head of the Department of Urban Development, KMC, said the rehabilitation should begin once the real squatters are identified. He said the government was yet to define as to who the real squatters were.

“In the absence of policies, the Finance Minister’s pledge might remain a pledge,” said Rijal.

The Three-Year Interim Plan also aims to rehabilitate the landless and resolve disputes over Guthi land and unmanaged settlements. Rijal said the initiatives to resolve these issues were lacking.

“The project to dismantle slums and houses built along the Manohara has yet to see the light of the day due to the lack of a clear-cut government policy,” added Rijal. The project is a KMC undertaking.

He suggested the government to adopt some policies of the developed countries as without

them they cannot even imagine to speed up urban development.

“The KMC has appealed to the government to help with the arduous task of dismantling slums and rehabilitating the slum-dwellers, but the government has been turning a deaf ear to

our plea,” said the KMC official.

Rijal added there was not even a single body that is supposed to draft physical planning policies. He added that the law was not clear on who the real squatters are.