Kathmandu, December 15

Speakers at a function organised in the capital today to mark the 21st Metropolitan City Day stressed the need for concerted efforts to make the Kathmandu Metropolitan City a metropolis of international standard.

State Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development Kunti Kumari Shahi said, “It is highly critical to develop the only metropolitan city of the country in accordance with a long-term vision.

The vacuum created by the absence of elected representatives in local bodies for a long time has badly impacted local governance.

Therefore, bureaucracy should act as a permanent government to provide services to the people until the local bodies get elected representatives,” she explained. The last local elections were held in 1997.

The local bodies are being administered by civil servants since.

Member of Parliament Ram Bir Manandhar lamented that the metropolis was not as it should have been. “KMC should meet the criteria of a metro city or else there will be no difference between a municipality and a metropolitan city,” he emphasised.

Acting chief of KMC Badri Bahadur Khadka said they need more legal rights to make their services systematic and dependable. CPN-UML leader Bidya Sundar Shakya said, “Kathmandu is a metro city but it does not have the features that a metropolis should have. We should give the denizens a sense of living in a metro city,” he said.

Gyanendra Karki, chief of Administration Department at the KMC, said the metropolis was having a tough time due to the absence of elected representatives.

“Despite this, we are committed to addressing their needs,” he said.