Kavre, October 31

Police have foiled an attempt to forcefully shift Ward No 3 office of Namobuddha Municipality in Kavre.

A group lobbying to shift the ward office was moving furniture and documents of the ward office. While the group was transporting office materials from the Bhedabari-based ward office in two vehicles, a police team from the District Police Office accosted them and took the movables under control at Deurali Chowk.

“We dispersed the crowd transporting furniture from the ward office and have now restored the things in the office,” said Kavre police chief SP Jayaraj Sapkota.

According to Ward No 3 Chairperson Ram Sharan Humagain, a group led by Nepali Congress aligned Ex-soldiers’ Association Kavre district Chair Indra Prasad Dahal, a resident of Dahaltar in Namobuddha Municipality-3, had forcibly taken away a desktop computer, a laptop, a cupboard, and other furniture, and important documents from the ward office.

“The incident happened while I had gone on an errand to Dhulikhel,” Humagain said.

Further, informing about the pressure he was facing from Dahal’s supporters to shift the ward office to Dahaltar lately, Humagain said, “They showed up with two trucks at about 11:00 am and loaded the properties on the trucks by keeping local representatives and staff outside the office.”

A meeting of local representatives and town executive body had already decided to shift the office to Deurali Danda from the current location keeping in view people’s access to the office. The office, up until now, is being operated temporarily from a rented facility in Bhedabari.

Dahal admitted they had tried to shift the ward office but claimed he had the support of the locals. “The so-called ward chair and his minions unilaterally decided to shift the ward office elsewhere despite the wish of the locals, hence our attempt to stop them from shifting the office,” he said, adding hundreds of locals had joined him in restoring materials of the ward office today.