KATHMANDU: Despite attempts to remove unauthorised traders from the vicinity of the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), enlisted in the World Heritage Site, over 200 shopkeepers are illegally setting up huts in the area.

However, the PADT has failed to evict them or make them resettle in the area allocated by it.

The shopkeepers are making money for years by trading in goods such as belts, clothes and other items not related to worshipping rites and rituals in the Pashupatinath Temple.

“We have been selling chains, decorative ornaments and garlands for more than five years,” said a shopkeeper on the temple premises. “We have not taken permission from the PADT to operate here,” she said, requesting anonymity. “Neither have we paid any amount to any trade committee although a trade committee has been mobilising the shop owners here,” she said.

However, she claimed that she was forced to sell goods on area for her livelihood. “The PADT issued a notice asking us to leave the area, but we are not ready and we won’t give up until we are given an alternative,” she said. She earns up to Rs 2,000 daily.

Ram Bahadur Karki, another shopkeeper among the dozens of cloth sellers, admitted that he was running his business without permission from the authority. “I am registered with a trade committee here after I paid Rs 200 about four years ago. However, I have not paid anything to anybody since then,” he said. “I have lived on this profession here,” said Karki, who hails from Jhapa District. “I came and built my hut myself,” he added.

According to the PADT, 30 stalls were made for the displaced shopkeepers in course of land management in the area. However, the stalls are yet to be utilised. The PADT had issued a deadline for evacuating the land many times. The last deadline expired two months ago.

“Those places were misused by powerful ones. We are deprived of the rights to use the stalls though I was selected for the quota,” the lady said. “The authority cheated us and cancelled my name,” she added.

The huts inside the world heritage site are illegal, said Sushil Nahata, member-secretary of the PADT. “There are about 300 shopkeepers running their business illegally. We have not allowed any trade committee to run business here,” he said, adding that only 30 stalls were made for the genuine displaced ones. “The area is not their property,” said Nahata. “One day they might claim that the Pashupatinath Temple belongs to them,” he said.

“If they do not leave the place, we will be forced to go the legal way,” he warned. “The deadline has already expired and we can evict them any time,” said Nahata. “We informed them of the deadline to leave the area, but they are still hanging around the restricted zone,” Nahata said.