Garbage talks make no headway

KATHMANDU: The garbage littering the streets of Kathmandu will remain uncollected for a few more days, as the talks between the struggle committee of Okharpauwa locals and the Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilisation Centre today ended inconclusively.

Dr Sumitra Amatya, general manager of the SWMRMC, said the meeting was put off till Wednesday. “The meeting will be held in the presence of secretaries from several concerned ministries,” said Dr Amatya.

Meanwhile, Ramesh Prasad Paudel, coordinator of the struggle committee, accused the government of failing to provide long term policies for proper waste management. He added that the government was unwilling to give a written commitment to the demands of the struggle committee. “The government is in no mood to accept our demand of the development package for sustainable management of waste,” said coordinator Paudel, adding that there were no members of the concerned ministries present in today’s talks. “We will not hold talks without the presence of the secretaries of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, Ministry of Local Development, Ministry of Health and Population, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative, Ministry of Land Reforms and Ministry of Environment,” said Paudel. There is no use of such talks if the representatives of the concerned authorities are not present.

Talking to The Himalayan Times, Rabin Man Shrestha, chief of environment department under Kathmandu Metropolitan City said the struggle committee was unwilling to hold talks without the representation of the secretaries from the concerned ministries.