If any illegal settlements have been built on public land, they can be easily demolished by giving them time to clear the area

Those in government have a common characteristic of letting any problem arise, get it bigger and bigger, and unless it has already caused considerable harm and it has become necessary, either under public pressure or some other compulsion, to act, they tend to remain oblivious.

On a number of such occasions, government officials have even been beneficiaries for letting the problem continue and get worse. Now, it is the case of the shanties erected around the famous Fewa Lake in Pokhara.

Our government agencies and their officials well know that Phewa Lake is one of the major tourist attractions and it is among the few gems of Pokhara.

It is also a natural water body whose environment needs to be protected just for the beauty of the area and of Pokhara as a whole, apart from the need to minimize the effects of pollution in and around the lake.

First, the authorities ignored for whatever reasons the process of people erecting shanties around the lake and now when the problem has become a big one, the Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City has served a 15-day notice on the residents of the shanties to clear out.

The residents of the area have joined in protests against the demolition decision.

Some of the residents claim that the authorities are trying to use their private land by demolishing the structures erected there, that they should be compensated or all such structures built without permission around the lake should be demolished without favour, and that the criteria for demolition are not scientific.

It is reported that as per the rule, a 100-metre perimeter around the lake should be cleared of all structures but the administration has fixed it at 65 metres.

The local residents allege that the administration wants to practice discrimination against them and to protect big structures and hotels. They say they are not against the conservation and the beautification of the lake, but for the application of the rule to all people.

If this is the case, the discriminatory treatment cannot be supported. In such a case, the sub-metropolis’s effort to clear the area and beautify it would be only partially successful.

If any of the area belongs to citizens, there are certain processes to follow for the government to acquire the land and compensate the owners according to law. Law and rules apply to all, those in authority and the common citizens alike.

Even the government cannot take any citizen’s land arbitrarily. To this aspect, the sub-metropolitan authorities should pay particular attention. The need for the beautification of Fewa Lake is not under dispute, even the local residents do not seem to be against it.

But the administration should show that it is treating all concerned fairly, that it is following the due legal and administrative processes in clearing the area, and that it is going to pay an adequate compensation to those whose land is acquired.

If any illegal settlements have been built on public land, they can be easily demolished by the administration by giving them a number of days to clear the area. But in the first place, the administration anywhere in the country should nip such problems in the bud.

Timber import

Nepal imported around 30 million cubic feet of timber products worth Rs. 88 billion from other countries in the fiscal year of 2071/72. The country mainly imported the products from Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam, New Zealand, Denmark, Africa and Australia.

The total amount of the timber products imported accounts for 50 percent of the domestic consumption. Import of timber products increased due to tight provision of removal of timber from Nepal’s forests.

The Federation of Forest Based Industry has claimed that around 38 million cubic feet of timber had remained idle in Nepali forests as the government has tightened noose on its extraction.

The Ministry of Forest has revealed that as much as 42 million cubic feet of timber had been stuck at various community forests and different timber depots had 2.3 million of timber in their stocks. It is learnt that around one million cubic feet of timber can be extracted from different national forests.

The ban on timber extraction was imposed in 2009 to preserve the fragile Chure range.

While it is praiseworthy to preserve the forest resources the government should also come out with a scientific plan to extract dead wood and fallen trees to meet the domestic requirement.