No move taken to rid City of waste

Kathmandu, November 12:

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City, the only metropolis of the country, and Lalitpur submetro-polis, the sub-metropolitan city in the Kathmandu Valley, will continue to stink for some more days as no initiative has been taken to pave the way for the disposal of garbage at the Sisdole Landfill Site.

“Valley coordinator of the Young Communist League (YCL) Sagar had called up one of our friends, Murari Ghimire, for talks for this evening. But Sagar didn’t call him again,” said Ram Kumar Ghimire, an activist of the Nepali Congress from Okharpauwa, who has been disrupting the flow of garbage to the Sisdole landfill site for a week.

“Though the Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilisation Centre (SWMRMC) should take the initiation to resolve the problem, it has not contacted me,” he said, adding that the government is not serious over his demands.

Among other things, Ram Kumar has been demanding action against the activists of the YCL who had thrashed him.

Chief of the Environment Management Department of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Rabin Man Shrestha said the KMC employees are on standby round the clock to transport garbage to the landfill site.

“If we are allowed to transport garbage, we can remove all the garbage collected in the city within two-three days,” he said.

General manager of the SWMRMC Nibash Chandra Shrestha said the problem of so-called kidnapping was not related to his office and therefore he could do nothing.

“Its nothing but a personal clash to obtain a tender for the benefit of an individual,” he said adding that only one or two people are interrupting the transportation of garbage to the landfill site.

No local of Okharpauwa is supporting the interruption besides the Okharpauwa Sanitary Landfill Site Main Coordination Committee, he claimed.