Balendra Shah, Nepal’s new prime minister, was obsessed with removing riverside squatter settlements in Kathmandu while he was the mayor of the national capital. That obsession seems to have persisted. As the prime minister, he is on a new mission to clear such settlements, in Kathmandu and in other locations around the country.

Nepali laws define a landless squatter as an individual who does not own land anywhere in the country, either personally or through family, and who cannot acquire land. According to a 2022 report, the three districts of Kathmandu valley have around 3,466 households of informal settlers living along riverbanks.

The eviction drive started in Kathmandu but landlessness and squatter settlements are nationwide phenomena. Broadly, there are at least 1.2 million Nepalis who own no land. Most of the people who have registered as landless are among the most marginalized sections of society, including a large chunk of the “untouchable” Dalits.

The constitution of Nepal guarantees every Nepali’s right to housing. But the government argues that most residents of these settlements have land and property elsewhere and that it is also unsafe to live by the rivers. These settlements flood every monsoon when the valley’s major rivers overflow. The ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party also believes that these areas teem with the old parties’ supporters whose encroachment was willfully ignored over the years.

During the previous eviction drive he led as Kathmandu’s mayor, Shah received a lot of support for trying to remove the squatters who were not just “illegally” occupying public land, but also “spoiling” the city’s image. But when the federal government refused to help him, for instance, by deploying the police, he felt thwarted in his efforts.

Shah, now the prime minister, seems to have taken this setback personally. Coming to power on the back of an overwhelming majority, Shah feels he has a license to sweep away these settlements, first in Kathmandu, then around the country. Feeling intimidated by the deployment of police and army, most of the remaining squatters living in riverside settlements of Kathmandu are now leaving voluntarily.

Thousands have been rendered homeless — including the elderly and children. At least two of those displaced have died by suicide. Many of the squatters have lost not just a place to live but also their means of livelihood.

Some temporary shelters have been built to house landless people who have registered with the authorities. Others have been put up in hotels. Even so, there are not enough of these shelters to house all those who qualify for resettlement.

Critics see the eviction drive as part of Shah’s authoritarian playbook. After becoming prime minister on March 26, he has not let due process stand in the way of swift action. His government arrested top political leaders who supposedly helped suppress the Gen Z uprising last September by treading on questionable legal ground. (They were soon released.) Around 1,600 civil servants have been fired in a bid to purge “political appointees.” And even though the government has a near two-thirds parliamentary majority, it is trying to enact vital reforms through ordinances.

In a similar vein, the squatter eviction drive is legally questionable. The law provides that before any such action is initiated, the state should determine the real number of landless and make provisions for their alternative accommodation.

“We are alarmed by the government’s unconstitutional violations and restriction of civil liberties,” a statement signed by 28 prominent members of civil society on May 4 reads. “We urge it to cease such actions [forced eviction and bringing of ordinances] and adhere to democratic practice and adhere to the constitution in letter and spirit.”

Yet the government has brushed aside such grave concerns of civil society groups and human rights organizations.

Of course, there is the other side to this story. There are undoubtedly unscrupulous people who have encroached on public land and built towering houses for themselves—even within the squatter settlements. Some media reports suggest many residents of these settlements own land elsewhere in Nepal.

But the presence of “fake refugees” does not obviate the need for the Shah government to adhere to due process. In fact, it further underscores the need for proper verification.

The drive in Kathmandu has unsettled residents of such settlements around the country, who fear their lives might be similarly upended. For instance, squatters in the prime minister’s home constituency in eastern Nepal—many of them hardcore Shah supporters—suspect they are next in line of fire. There have been anti-eviction protests in different parts of the country.

But the voices of protests are easily drowned out by those who believe the Shah government can do no wrong.

In a cruel twist of representative democracy, a popularly elected government is being cheered even as it razes the homes of the most deprived and marginalized sections of society.