RPP does not own the land and the building housing its party office that the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) looks intent on demolishing.
Houses cannot be built under high-voltage electricity lines and the KMC does not pass design of such houses. The building that houses RPP's central office in Dhumbarahi has also not passed the design and the KMC, therefore, is trying to demolish the building.
The KMC on Monday sent excavators and municipal police to demolish the building while RPP cadres obstructed the access road to the building to stop its demolition.
RPP leaders and cadres have been asking the KMC to first demolish other buildings built under the same high-voltage line from Narayan Gopal Chowk till Dhumbarahi before demolishing the party office. They point that KMC has also built some of its structures under high-voltage lines and accuse KMC Mayor Balen Shah of targeting the party office.
RPP does not own the building which was constructed 11 years ago in the land owned by RPP leader Dil Bikash Rajbhandari. He had donated nine annas of the land to RPP in memory of his wife Shashi Kala Rajbhandari but did not transfer ownership of the land, that currently is owned by his daughters, to the party.
RPP constructed the building at a cost of around Rs 15 million with donations and financial assistance, according to an RPP office-bearer, and the party office was inaugurated when Kamal Thapa was the chairman 11 years ago.
But Rajbhandari has yet to transfer ownership of the land. The office-bearer has claimed that Rajbhandari has been putting conditions of making him party vice-chair at times and lawmaker or a minister even if for just six months at others in return for transferring ownership.
The office-bearer has revealed that RPP tried to pass the design after constructing the building but the KMC refused. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) procures the land where towers for high-voltage transmission lines are erected, according to Information Officer with the NEA Bhagwan Dhakal, but it provides compensation of 20 percent of the value of the land under the lines and allows the land-owners to retain ownership of the land.
The RPP office-bearer expresses ignorance about whether Rajbhandari has received such compensation from NEA or not.
KMC Mayor Shah, meanwhile, has refused to meet RPP Chairman Rajendra Lingden or even take his call, according to RPP General Secretary Dhawal Shumsher Rana.
KMC Police reached the party office on Friday and notified to vacate the building. Lingden tried to call Shah after that but Shah did not take the call or call Lingden back, according to Rana. "We reached the KMC Office to meet mayor today but he did not grant a meeting," Rana stated.
