Please do visit www.sukulgunda.com for more!

Old School Media's Fake Conscience!

Our old school media's fake conscience is on full display as they put out hundreds of new reports in a day, highlighting the problems the squatters have been facing since they were moved to a holding location till their verification is over.

Yes, we need to provide housing, jobs, and land for the real folks who have nothing in our land. But if UML chor netas like Bishnu Poudel and other Pokharels can get land in the name of squatters nearly three decades ago and then sell it for profit, then we must also punish them to the full extent of the law. It seems that most of our communist netas have acquired land as sukumbaasis over the past three decades.

Yes, there will be minor disturbances for the squatters who have lived along the banks of the Bagmati River for decades, but isn't it time for the government to make sure that no one is using public land for their personal gain? 90% of the illegal settlements were developed only after 2006. And we have to thank the mili-juli triple sarkar of Congress, UML and the Maoists for all this mess!

If we really look into it, then we find a 'mafia' raj in these illegal settlements where old school party jholeys built temporary structures and rented them out to the poor people for a few thousand Rupees less than what they would have had to pay if they were renting a single room legally.

The old political parties did nothing in the past two decades to take care of government land, but instead allowed thousands of their own jholeys to build stuff along the Bagmati River and across the country and mint some money off the poor folks. But now, the Balen government is the culprit and the evil one for our old school media and old jholeys! It is actually the job of the local authorities to clear the illegal settlements in the country. The government just made sure the local Mayors did their job right.

The illegal settlements have no supplies of drinking water and sanitation but somehow they managed to get electricity thanks to bribes to the NEA and the political networks of the old school jholeys. I think the squatters are better off living in real homes with adequate plumbing instead of paying Rs 4,000 for a tin roof to an illegal 'Mayor' in their respective illegal settlements. Yes, there was a whole new 'sukumbaasi' parallel government in place!

We see old political party jholeys whining about how this new government is anti-people. No, it is not. Even Harka Sampang is joining the line, but somebody needs to remind him that he tried his best to remove illegal settlements in Dharan while he was the Mayor. Harka wants to be Oli 2.0 but he seems to forget that it takes time to undo the wrongs of the past thirty-plus years and the new government plans to act fast and furious, not just be curious about the problems and let it slide for the Jholeys to make millions!

Our old school media wallahs are now making it look like a humanitarian crisis when it comes to those squatters who are now living in tents or in government buildings. They show us pictures of rain seeping in and babies not getting enough food and many other problems. Yes, the government should allow the media to report freely but at the same time, the media also needs to ask the question: were these squatters better off living in the slums? And for baby food and diapers, we can all pitch in to help them. Just send us the QR code but don't take that money to go to Dohori and spend it on wine and dine like most of our pattukaars!

The past few days of rain would have made a mess in their previous living quarters. The past governments couldn't even rescue folks from Nakkhu River during the monsoon and yet the same old politicians tell us that the Balen government has committed a grave sin by demolishing the illegal settlements.

Yes, we feel for the poor and the government is working on identifying the real folks who need help, not hukumbaasis who have profited from grabbing public land and making money off the vulnerable folks. Even a former Maoist Minister had his four-storey home demolished. I guess the comrade thought nobody would give a damn in the mili-juli government about folks building permanent villas along the banks of Bagmati. Well, it is RSP government now and they are here to bulldoze all illegal settlements and corrupt practices of the past.

It is time for the government to take back public land encroached not only by squatters but by many old school jholey organizations, rich shady byaparis and land mafias across the country. Every year, these mafia ones make billions of Rupees from illegal rents from the poor. And our old school media seems to believe that after three decades of silence, when the governments looted everyone, it is now time to finally talk about ethics and the rule of law when they themselves are engaged in extortion, tax evasion, and exploitation of their own staff.

******
Send your suggestions to vomit at sukulgunda.com!