August 16: The Biratnagar Airport Construction Struggle Committee is planning to announce protest programmes arguing that the administration has not carried out the work of land acquisition on time. As many as 350 households living near Biratnagar Airport have been affected due to delay in land acquisition process and to provide them compensation. For the expansion of the airport, the acquisition of 1400 plots of land was stopped in April of 2077 BS.

Hoping to receive compensation, they are frustrated as the government does not provide budget and the local administration does not move forward with the acquisition. They are now demanding that their blocked land be vacated. Uddhav Karki, a member of the Airport Victims' Struggle Committee, said that the locals were in trouble as the three-tier government did not allocate compensation for the airport and the local administration did not carry out on-site survey and evaluation. He said that some of them were not allowed to take loan by keeping  as collateral in banks while others were not allowed to move elsewhere by selling their land.

"It is not clear how long we will have to wait for the land the land acquisition to complete," he said. "The government should make sure that they pay the compensation within a particular date."

Another member of the struggle committee, Santosh Khadka, said that the biggest problem was in the housing sector when the airport acquired 126 bighas of land. According to him, three of the five plots of land have been acquired. "It is not possible to build a house on two sides. So far, neither the authority nor the local administration has been able to decide what to do with it," he said.

"After blocking the land for more than a year, the authorities and the administration have not shown any interest in completing the field work and assessment," he said. "So now there is no alternative than to struggle. We will resort to protest.”

Chief of the Civil Aviation Authority Biranagar Airport Office Utsav Kharel said that the work could not move forward as the government did not release the budget. He informed that the compensation work could not be done as the federal government did not release the budget, but it was decided to allow the locals to use the land as it would be blocked for a long time. Locals are demanding that they should be able to withdraw loan by keeping the documents of the land as collateral.

The Biratnagar Airport Victims Struggle Committee had earlier submitted an eight-point demand letter to the then Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Bhanubhakta Dhakal, Chief District Officer, Biratnagar Metropolitan City and the ward office. The committee has put forth the demand saying that compensation to the Internally Displaced People should be given so that they can buy houses in urban areas and well-equipped places just like their place of residence; maximum compensation of Rs 2 million per Dhur and Rs. 4,500 per square foot for house should be given. They have demanded compensation for the entire land and entire house in case of acquiring half land and half house during the airport expansion.

They have also demanded for the waiver of profit tax as well as the depreciation amount for the houses while compensating. It has been demanded that time should be given to complete the construction and pass the house plan.