Landless demand land for their vote

By Bishnu Prasad Pokharel Damak, May 2: Landless squatters living in unorganised settlements in Jhapa are not happy with the political parties as the latter did little to solve their problems which they raised in successive election in the past.

They said that they were always being used only as a ‘vote bank’ by the political parties. 

More than three dozen families living on the banks of the Kamal Khola of Kamal Rural Municipality-2 in Jhapa have been unable to get the land ownership certificates for two and a half decades. They also warned the political parties by placing a banner at the entrance of the settlement, which says ‘No Ownership Certificate, No Vote’.

According to a local squatter leader, in every election, the candidates of the political parties take their citizenship and necessary documents saying that they will provide land ownership certificate immediately but after the election, no one comes back again. “This time, we have hung banners because we have always been cheated,” he said.

Dhan Bahadur Rai, a 90-year-old resident of the same slum, said that he was about to die without getting any property certificate. He said that he has been living on the bank of the Kamal Khola for more than 25 years. Before that, he used to live in someone’s house and raised his children.”

He said that his only son died of jaundice and his wife died after being bed-ridden for three years and did not get proper treatment. I have a lot of suffering and pain just being poor and lack land,” he said with tear in his eyes. He said that he would have died on his own land if he had got the land ownership certificate. 

He also said that he had gone to many places in the hope of getting the ownership certificate. Now, he can hardly walk out but he has not given up his hope of getting a land ownership certificate.

Local Chandra Maya Rai was outraged and said that she could no longer trust any political party. When the election comes, the political parties showed them the hope of providing land ownership certificate but after the election, they disappear until the next election. She said that more than 40 households like her in the area are without land ownership certificates.

The settlement is only 500 meters away from the Kamal Rural Municipality office and is connected to the local Campa Bazaar. This time too, the local political parties have included the squatters’ problem in their manifesto as their primary responsibility.