Kathmandu. Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Acting Mayor Sunita Dangol has directed the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) authorities to start the conservation of public land that has been vacated by removing the squatters.

Inspecting the area that has been vacated on the bank of the Bagmati River at Thapathali on Saturday, Deputy Mayor Dangol directed the concerned offices including the High Powered Bagmati Civilization Integrated Development Committee to install fences for the protection of the sites that have been vacated and will be used for the protection of the places to be used now.

Acting Chief Dangol inspected the physical condition of Nagarjun’s colony at Ichangu. According to KMC building management committee coordinator and ward no 11 chair Hiralal Tandukar, there were 332 huts at Thapathali and Bansighat in the ward. Of them, 136 houses and huts towards Thapathali have been demolished.

There were 162 households in ward-9 and 476 households in ward-31 from Dirghashanti tole (Jagritinagar) in ward-31. Of these, houses in ward no. 9 were evacuated on April 26.

According to the report prepared by the High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of Bagmati Civilization in 2079 BS, there are 3,496 households living unsystematically on the banks of the rivers in the Kathmandu Valley. As per the committee’s report, there are 2,245 households in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, 90 in Kageshwori Municipality, 156 in Budhanilkantha, 17 in Lalitpur Metropolitan City and 773 in Bhaktapur Municipality.

Some houses may have been added in the space of three years. Based on this, it is estimated that there are around four thousand unsystematic settlers in the Kathmandu Valley.