Mahendranagar, 14 September

Half an hour away from Doti Silgarhi is East Chowki Rural Municipality-2, Bateokhar. A ruined model settlement can be seen near the Bateokhar road. For first-time visitors to the area, it may seem that the entire village has left the local village in a disaster, but the story of this uninhabited ruined settlement is different.

This settlement, which was built for the residence of 18 families under the Mukta Haliya rehabilitation program, has turned into ruins. It is said that no one wants to live in that settlement because it is not suitable for living. With the connivance of some leaders of the Haliya liberation movement and government employees, the houses were bought and built in a secluded and inhospitable place.

Gorakh Bahadur Sarki, activist of Haliya Mukti Andolan, says, “That place was not chosen to settle Haliya Basti. Because someone had to sell the land and someone had to take commission, a house was built at that place for personal gain.”

The Government of Nepal had allocated 94 lakh 50 thousand in the financial year 2074/75 to build a model settlement for the freed people of Doti district. It was arranged that minimum infrastructure facilities like schools, drinking water, and electricity should be provided to establish a settlement for the freed Haliyas.

According to the recent leaders, this problem has arisen due to the selfishness and economic manipulation of some people, when they tried to build a settlement in the forest where there is no access to roads, water, electricity, or schools.

It has been alleged that the employees of the Land Office, who were entrusted with the task of Gairhalia and rehabilitation, to find land for the construction of model settlements of 'A' class (who have no real estate) Mukta Halia.

Similarly, in June 2075, land near the forest was purchased at a place called East Chowki Rural Municipality-2, Bateokhar, in order to build a model settlement for 18 households. In the name of Mukt Haliya, land was passed and buildings were built, but the buildings were not fit for habitation.

18 buildings such as goat cages, which are not even suitable for keeping cattle, have been destroyed. It is said that five lakh 25 thousand rupees have been invested per family in house construction and land purchase. At present some families of Mukt Haliya are living in old houses and most of them are living in Kailali.

Even the local government does not have any official information about the fact that the settlement built for the freed Haliya has turned into ruins. Purvi Chowki rural municipality chairman Ram Prasad Upadhyay said that he saw the houses destroyed, but apart from that, he did not have any official information.

It is said that 1,153 youths have been rehabilitated in Doti. Chief of the District Land Revenue Office, Prem Bahadur Majhi, informed that land has been purchased and houses built under the Muktu Halia rehabilitation program at various places, but he said that Muktu Halia did not live in those model settlements and that he did not know much about the houses being destroyed.