Rup Narayan Dhakal : Pokhara—A recently formed struggle committee of landlords has submitted a memorandum to Chief District Officer of District Administration Office (DAO) Kaski urging the government to provide proper compensation for their land plots which have been acquired by the Integrated Rupa Lake Conservation Development Project (IRLCDP) which is going to build a dam to expand and conserve that lake.
The memorandum was submitted a day after the meeting of struggle committee which has demanded minimum Rs 5 million compensation for per Ropani (5476 sq.ft.) of land. The DAO Kaski on June 21 has published a public notice in a Pokhara based daily newspaper urging the landlords to come to that office to receive the compensation of their land plots within 15 days. But the struggle committee expressed its dissatisfaction over the rate of compensation fixed by the government.
The struggle committee coordinated by Surya Nath Adhikari, one of the landlords of affected area had reached CDO’s office to submit the memorandum that was also submitted to Pokhara Lekhnath Metropolitan City (PLMC) and Rupa Rural Municipality (RRM) Office, a political leader and social worker Tikaram Pageni wrote in his Facebook account.
According to information, around 600 meter long and 10 meter high dam would be built to conserve the Rupa Lake that is situated in the bordering area of PLMC and RRM. The base of the dam would be 50 meter and the top of the dam would be 10 meter of width. Following the construction of dam, the existing 104 hector water area of lake would be expanded to 174 hector. The lake is 2.74 to 4 meter deep now and the government is going to acquire around 1472 ropanis of land including 9 houses.
Sedimentation and human encroachment were the major problems in the conservation of Rupa Lake. It has been informed that the Rs 120 million have already been allocated and some Rs 250 million is in the pipeline under the five year Rupa conservation project of Rs 4bl.
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