People treating me like a ‘whipping boy’, says KMC Mayor Shakya

Kathmandu, November 5

Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya today complained that he was being treated like a ‘whipping boy’ even as the metropolitan authority was carrying out works falling under the jurisdiction of the federal and provincial governments.

Taking to mediapersons at a press meet, Mayor Shakya said the metropolitan city office was carrying out works related waste management, road construction and upgradation, and pollution control.

He said Kathmandu Metropolitan City had been managing waste collected from 18 different local bodies in three districts in Kathmandu.

“We could have remained happy collecting waste collected from Kathmandu Metropolitan City area only, but we decided to help other local bodies as they were not in a position to manage waste on their own. However, neither the federal government nor the provincial government have taken any initiative to upgrade the access road to the Sisdole landfill site. The government is also not serious about bringing a new landfill site at Banchare Dando in operation,” Shakya rued.

Shakya complained that people also blamed him for not collecting waste from Satdobato or Jorpati, which did not fall under the jurisdiction of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

There are 1,006 employees working at the environment management department of KMC. A majority of them are deployed to collect household waste from different places in Kathmandu.

Mayor Shakya said Kathmandu Metropolitan City was also criticised for not repairing roads wider than eight metres, which actually fell under the jurisdiction of the Department of Roads under the federal government. He blamed the Melamchi Drinking Water Project for the poor condition of roads in Kathmandu.

“We, however, assure that roads falling under our jurisdiction will be repaired soon,” he said.

Mayor Shakya also said that they were committed to operating monorail in Kathmandu.