Kathmandu, May 19

The Environment-Friendly Local Governance Implementation Central Coordination Committee headed by Chief Secretary Solmal Subedi has decided to request all ministries on the premises of Singha Durbar to achieve the indicators set forth in the Environmental-Friendly Local Governance Framework, 2013.

After the concerned office achieves the indicators, it can write to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development to initiate the process for declaration as environment-friendly public office.

For this, the concerned office should have clean and gender-friendly toilets, clean office rooms, no spider nets, dust, mush, unnecessary plants, weeds, and dirt marks on the walls and ceiling of the office.

Similarly, old, worn-out and unnecessary things should not be kept on the premises of the office and no unnecessary graffiti should be painted and random posters pasted on the walls and ceilings of office.

On the maintenance front, the walls and boundaries of the office building should be painted once every year and the office building regularly maintained. There should be no cracks in the walls of the office building.

For beauty and greenery, the framework requires each office to have a garden with flowers, plants and grass in the open space. The garden should be well-maintained and taken care of at least once every week.

At least 10 perennial plants should be planted within the office premises.

On the waste management front, the office should segregate waste. Organic waste should be made compost within the office premises or managed in some other way and inorganic waste should be collected separately in plastic and sold or disposed of in a certain place.

Hazardous wastes (such as battery, CFL, bulb, pieces of glass/bottle, tube-light etc) and other waste collected separately should be disposed of in a fixed place.

The footpath adjoining the office should be cleaned regularly and broken things, worn-out sofas, torn carpets, torn and old curtains should not be used in office. Plastic bags below the prescribed standard should not be used in the office.