Police bulldozers tear down makeshift homes used by settlers who lost everything in Nepal earthquake
Police tore down hundreds of temporary huts on Tuesday in the Nepalese capital where people have been living for two years since losing their homes in the 2015 earthquake.
Police in riot gear used bulldozers to tear down about 440 huts in Kathmandu without providing any alternative living options.
Our home is destroyed. I have no idea where I am going to go and live with my one-year-old baby
An estimated 2,000 people were living in the camp, belonging to a government-owned company and located near the Boudha shrine in Kathmandu.
Kathmandu’s chief government administrator Him Nath Dawadi said it was already two years since the earthquake and that it was necessary to clear the land. He said the settlers had been given one month’s notice.
“We gave them enough time to leave and told them to go back to their villages so they can collect the grant given by the government to build their own houses,” Dawadi said.
He said the government was not going to give any compensation for the huts they lost.
There were no scuffles with the police, but residents had to rush to collect their belonging out of the huts made from bamboo, tarpaulin and plastic sheets.