KATHMANDU: The yet-to-be held council meeting of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) will be held within two weeks.

The meeting could not take place due to the lack of “internal” preparations, plans of budget and programmes, said Niranjan Baral, government secretary and the executive chief, KMC. “The meeting will be held within two weeks. Now, we’re about to finalise the size of the budget and programmes.”

Disputes over the size of the budget and other programmes had long been delaying the much-awaited meeting as it should be held to approve its annual budget and programmes.

The meeting was scheduled in mid-July, when it was expected to approve the annual budget and programmes for the current fiscal. Earlier, the meeting could not be held due to another dispute over the formation of an all-party mechanism.

The delay has already begun adversely affecting the implementation of regular development projects, according to Baral. “Now, the demands of the development projects are more than the capacity of the civic body,” he said. “I’m in favour of not bringing the big-size budget based on huge deficit amount.”

The estimated annual budget last year was Rs 1.85 billion. According to Baral, this year’s budget would be more than this.

Move to rope in pvt sector

LALITPUR: In a bid to expedite the process of employing private sector to set up a garbage-fuelled plant in the Valley, the high level garbage management commission consulted with representatives of 29 VDCs adjoining the five municipalities of the Kathmandu Valley.

“The discussions were zeroed in on garbage problems, possible solution and quantity of the waster produced in the VDCs,” said Dr Sumitra Amatya, member secretary of the commission, who is also the general manager of Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilisation Centre. “They are scheduled to give us the exact information by Monday,” she added. — HNS