LALITPUR: Despite Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s direction to manage solid waste produced in the Kathmandu Valley in a scientific way , no significant achievement has been made in this regard.

According to the Ministry of Local Development, the government included in its budget plan to form a high-level empowered commission, which would make an agreement with the private sector to set up a garbage-fuelled plant on the basis of public-private partnership by mid-November.

The High Level Committee on Solid Waste Management (HLCSWM), headed by Dr Dinesh Chandra Devkota, member, National Planning Commission, was formed on August 30 with the authority to sign the agreement with the private sector by mid-December. The committee has only three days to go before its tenure expires. However, it is yet to call Expression of Interest from the private sector.

The seven-member committee comprises secretaries from the ministries of Local Development, Physical Planning and Works, Land Reforms and Environment, executive chief of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, and general manager of the Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilisation Centre. It has also recruited three experts on waste management.

Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD, said the committee was not empowered according to the spirit of the budget — to work without any hassle. “The problems and confusion related to the policies have come a cropper in dealing with the private sector,” he said.

Though the HLCSWM can carry out all the processes, it is not eligible to sign final deals with the private sector. The MoLD is legally entitled to decide on the issues finally while the HLCSWM needs to forward the process through the ministry.

The HLCSWM tabled a proposal in the cabinet on November 3 to extend its tenure by mid-April and empower it so that it could carry out its jobs smoothly. “But the cabinet extended the tenure of the committee to only December 3, directing the MoLD to deal with the case,” said Dr Sumitra Amatya, GM of SWMRMC and member secretary of the HLCSWM. “Because of the dilemma, the process was halted,” she added.

The committee was formed but only the MoLD can deal with the process as per the BOT (Build Operate and Transfer) Act, said Amatya. “We have prepared and submitted the final draft of the EoI to the MoLD for publishing it,” she said. “It will be published soon.”

Thapaliya said it would be better to empower the committee rather than to assign the Ministry to deal with the issue. “The government could not amend the Waste Management Act owing to the obstruction of the parliamentary business. Formation of a powerless committee was another lapse of the government,” he said, adding that the plan is getting more complicated.