Kathmandu, May 5:

The medieval bazaar of Ason, located in the heart of Kathmandu, will no more be crowded from tomorrow if the locals succeed in their plans.

The locals have decided to evacuate over 500 street vendors from the area to give space to passers-by and traffic.

“Of course, we love the vegetable vendors and spice sellers. We do know they are indeed the identity of Ason but in the changing lifestyle and urbanisation, they cannot occupy the streets any more,” Yagya Ratna Tuladhar, chairman of the Asan Sewa Samiti, told this daily.

The locals decided to prevent the vendors from selling goods in streets after they found it difficult to take a fire-brigade to Makhan area, where a house was gutted in a fire two weeks ago. After the incident, some locals filed a complaint at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City. “And we started discussing about the possibility of removing street vendors,” Tuladhar said. He further said the decision was taken after political parties, security agencies and community organisations supported them.

Two weeks ago, a meeting of representatives of NC, NC-D, CPN-UML as well as the Maoist-affiliated Newa National Liberation Front and New Kathmandu Campaign had agreed to clean Ason.

Asked if evacuation would affect the historic identity of Ason, Tuladhar said the people would be accustomed to the change though it would definitely affect the significance Ason has gained in the past centuries.

Gautam Ratna Tuladhar, a local shopkeeper, said Ason would be “more friendly to the shoppers and shopkeepers because the street-vendors only created problems for the pedestrians than providing them with worthy commodities.”

The Ason locals took the decision to keep the area free from street vendors from tomorrow (May 6) after a series of meetings with the concerned agencies.

Dhanapati Sapkota, chief of the Implementation Department of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, said street vendors will be evacuated if the locals support municipal authorities.

“We all know that the street vendors are illegal. But we let them go because the locals have been supporting them. Now, if the local people are all ready to evacuate them, we are happy to clean the Ason bazaar,” he said.