Kathmandu. Four mass organizations affiliated to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) have strongly condemned and denounced the inhuman Bulldozer terror of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City in Bhaktapur’s Manohara squatter settlement—where poor peasants and workers, Dalits, and indigenous nationalities live; during the heavy monsoon rains of Shrawan, demolishing the huts and shacks built by squatters through hardship, looting their belongings, and carrying out brutal attacks against them, violating the people’s constitutional rights to housing and land, and have demanded that arrangements for relief and compensation be made for the people whose houses were bulldozed in the Manohara settlement.
Four influential mass organizations of the fundamental classes affiliated with the CPN (Maoist Centre) – the All Nepal Peasants’ Federation (Revolutionary Centre), the All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF), the Nepal Dalit Liberation Front, and the All Nepal Squatters’ Association – issued a joint press statement today expressing this view.
In the press statement signed by the chairpersons of all four mass organizations, it is mentioned that the residents of Manohara settlement in Bhaktapur—who have cultivated and settled the land for decades by building homes and shelters—had already submitted applications to Madhyapur Thimi Municipality as per the law to obtain land ownership certificates (Lalpurja); instead of processing those applications, entering them into official records, investigating them, and providing Lalpurja as per the law, the attempt to evict them using bulldozers exposes the anti-Dalit, anti-squatter, anti-poor farmer-worker character of the UML–Congress coalition government under Oli’s leadership, the Land Problem Resolution Commission it formed, and the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
Through the statement, the four mass organizations said that to ensure the constitutional rights of landless Dalits, squatters, and unmanaged settlers across the country, the Prachanda government had already moved forward last year with the goal of distributing land ownership certificates (Lalpurja) to 500,000 landless and squatter households, however, no progress has been made in this regard after the UML–Congress coalition government under Oli came to power.
The statement also mentions that it has already been revealed publicly that Minister for Land Management, Balram Adhikari, has been busy bargaining over the appointment of commission officials, transfer of staff, scandals like the Lichibari case in Pokhara, and counting bundles of money stuffed in colorful sacks. Meanwhile, information has been coming out that in various parts of the country, lands tilled and used by the people for generations have been registered under the names of land mafias.
The four mass organizations constantly active in favor of the rights of Nepal’s poor peasants, laborers, Dalits, squatters, and the general public have demanded that all three levels of government immediately stop the act of evicting landless Dalits, squatters, and unmanaged settlers without providing them with alternatives and without putting them through the process of obtaining land ownership certificates.
They have strongly demanded the immediate dismissal and strict punishment of corrupt ministers, secretaries, employees, and incompetent and corrupt officials of the commission who have been implicated in various scandals, and the amendment of the Land Related Act, 2021, to abolish anti-people provisions such as allowing the exchange, sale, and mortgaging of land exceeding the ceiling and the land bank and land ownership certificates be provided as soon as possible to the actual landless Dalits, squatters, and unorganized settlers, who have been cultivating and inhabiting land for generations.
Mentioning that the struggle for land rights is an integral part of the class struggle, they have appealed to the landless Dalits, squatters, and unorganized settlers across the country to get organized, unite, and participate in this struggle against injustice and exploitation and for the right to land ownership certificates.
Full Text of the Joint Press Statement of Four People’s Organizations Close to CPN (Maoist Centre):
Stop the bulldozer terror of Kathmandu Metropolitan City!
Dismiss the corrupt Land Minister and the incompetent officials of the Land Problem Resolution Commission!
Joint Press Statement
We, four mass organisations affiliated to Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) – the All Nepal Peasants Federation (Revolutionary Center) close to the CPN (Maoist Center), the All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF), the Nepal Dalit Liberation Front, and the All Nepal Squatters’ Association, strongly condemn and denounce the inhuman act of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, and demand strict actions against those involved in the incident, in which, by deploying a large number of police personnel, including Janapad, Armed, and Metropolitan police, on July 15, 2025 (30th of Shrawan, 2082), committed a bulldozer terror in the squatters’ settlement in Manohara, Bhaktapur, where poor peasants, laborers, Dalits, and ethnic groups reside, while it was raining heavily in Shrawan, violating the people’s constitutional rights to housing and land, demolished the huts and shelters built by the squatters with great difficulty, looted their belongings, and brutally attacked them.
Since they have no other options left in life, it is a compulsion for squatters to build houses, huts, and shanties and live in various parts of the country. Understanding that compulsion, all three levels of government should have initiated efforts to solve the land problem as soon as possible.
At this time, Kathmandu Metropolitan City has the independent mayor Balen Shah, who won with the Lauro (stick) symbol; the deputy mayor Sunita Dangol, who won with the CPN-UML’s Surya (sun) symbol, the chief administrative officer Saroj Guragain, who was forcibly transfered by the Oli government; and ward chairpersons and members who belong to the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, and the Rastriya Swatantra Party. The metropolis has not initiated any work to have the landless Dalits, squatters, and unorganized settlers fill out forms, make their Data Entry, and conduct investigations, neither any step has been takebn by the Oli-led CPN-UML coalition government and the Land Issue Resolving Commission, which has been turned into a recruitment center for cadres without any knowledge or experience in land-related issues, in this regard. The residents of Manohara settlement in Bhaktapur, who have been cultivating and inhabiting the land for decades, had already applied for land ownership certificates (Lalpurja) with the Madhyapur Thimi Municipality as per the law, instead of processing their applications, making their Data Entry, investigating, and providing them the certificates according to the law, the attempt to evict them with bulldozers has exposed the anti-poor, anti-landless Dalit, anti-squatter, and anti-unmanaged settler character of the Oli-led UML-Nepali Congress coalition government, the Land Issue Resolvig Commission it formed, and the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
Although the Prachanda government had already initiated work last year to ensure the constitutional rights of landless Dalits, squatters, and unorganized settlers across the country with the aim of distributing land ownership certificates to 500,000 landless people and squatters, no progress has been made in this regard since the arrival of the Oli government, a coalition of the CPN-UML and Nepali Congress. The commission has done nothing except for collecting salaries and allowances. No one knows where the commission is or what it is doing. It has already been made public that the Minister for Land Management, Balram Adhikari, is busy bargaining over the appointment of commission officials, the transfer of employees, and scandals like Lichibari scandal of Pokhare, counting money in colorful sacks, and so on. Reports are coming in from various parts of the country that land mafias have registered land cultivated by people for generations in their own names.
We, the four mass organizations constantly active in favor of the rights of Nepal’s poor peasants, laborers, Dalits, squatters, and the general public, demand that all three levels of government immediately stop the act of evicting landless Dalits, squatters, and unmanaged settlers without providing them with alternatives and without putting them through the process of obtaining land ownership certificates. We demand that arrangements for relief and compensation be made for the people whose houses were bulldozed in the Manohara settlement. We also strongly demand the immediate dismissal and strict punishment of corrupt ministers, secretaries, employees, and incompetent and corrupt officials of the commission who have been implicated in various scandals. We strongly demand the amendment of the Land Act, 2021, to abolish anti-people provisions such as allowing the exchange, sale, and mortgaging of land exceeding the ceiling and the land bank. We also demand that land ownership certificates be provided as soon as possible to the actual landless Dalits, squatters, and unorganized settlers who have been cultivating and inhabiting land for generations, even if government records refer to those lands as forests, buffer zones, biological corridors, pastures, marketplaces, ravines, cliffs, slopes, saline lands, riverbeds, pathways, sand dunes, sandbanks, small mounds, pond banks, gullies, terraced slopes, water sources, and swamps. Otherwise, we will have no option but to take to the streets to protect the people’s right to housing and land. Since the struggle for land rights is an integral part of the class struggle, we call upon the landless Dalits, squatters, and unorganized settlers across the country to get organized, unite, and participate in this struggle against injustice and exploitation and for the right to land ownership certificates.
With Revolutionary Greetings,
Chitra Bahadur Shrestha, Chairperson, All Nepal Peasants Federation (Revolutionary Center)
Jagat Simkhada, Chairperson, All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF)
Daljit Shripali ‘Prashanta’, Chairperson, Nepal Dalit Liberation Front
Amar Pariyar, Chairperson, All Nepal Squatters’ Association
Date: 2082-04-31 (2025-08-16)
