By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov 22: A literary gathering programme will be held Saturday morning in Tundikhel under the Occupy Tundikhel campaign.
Several senior litterateurs will recite their poems in the event.
The Occupy Tundikhel campaign was launched on November 9 and had formed a human chain in a bid to exert pressure on the authority to free the Tundikhel from illegal structures and materials.
The leading heritage conservation campaigners launched the campaign to free the Tundikhel from the current mess.
Under the campaign, they planted a sample of Khari tree in the middle part of the Tundikhel last Saturday.
The campaign will continue every Saturday for three months to reflect the importance of open space of Tundikhel by organising several programmes and activities, said Bijaya Shrestha, coordinator of Occupy Tundikhel Campaign.
Tundikhel, located in the central part of Kathmandu city, has a long history of political changes. The ground once was recognised as the biggest parade ground of Asia.
It is a source of clean air for the denizens and a source of ground water recharge centre in Kathmandu. It is also full of tangible and intangible heritages such as Mahankal Temple, Duimaju, and Guru Mapa.
There is an open stadium, the witness of historical political changes, which turned into a shelter centre for hundreds of earthquake victims during the Gorkha Earthquake-2015.
Now, the big open ground of Tundikhel has been encroached in the name of temporary old Bus Park, illegal shops, unmanaged parking, storage site for the building construction materials and living place for the labourers working at Durbar High School and Dharahara.
The new generation will not be able to use this historical ground if the present structures are not removed from the place and make it open ground as in the past, he said.
Now, Tundikhel is waiting to get its original look and identity.
The three-month campaign had begun with the formation of a human chain at the place. The campaign will be organised in three phases- current, short-term and long term, coordinator Shrestha said.