KATHMANDU: Police personnel continued to collect garbage from the Kathmandu valley today, disposing about 70 metric tonnes of waste.

About 200 personnel from Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force were involved in the waste disposal process.

The garbage collection, disrupted since January 21 resumed on January 27, when 13 trucks of waste was disposed off. The same was again halted on Thursday, after private organisations and truck drivers were warned against involving themselves in the waste disposal process.

Police personnel helped clear about 25 metric toones of garbage yesterday.

Local body employees' unions have been protesting since January 21, demanding trade union rights, permanent status for temporary employees and facilities on par with civil servants. Service deliveries and garbage collection have been badly affected in the local bodies.

Superintendent of Police Ganesh KC, chief at the Metropolitan Police Division, said about 200 personnel from NP and APF were involved today in collecting and disposing garbage. "Vehicles hired by the Solid Waste Management and Resource Mobilisation Centre (SWMRMC) were used to dump the garbage," KC said. "Private organisations were not involved today," he added.

"Garbage from Baluwatar, Kamalpokhari and Lainchaur areas was collected today."

The garbage was disposed off in private plots of land at Tikasthali VDC-4, bordering Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts. The locals provided the plots of land to dump the waste as filler materials. The space will be enough for disposing waste for about a month, said KC.

The Aletar Landfil Site was not used keeping in view the agitating local body unions' threats. "We will continue to dispose garbage untill the local body unions' problems are solved," KC said.

According to the SWMRMC, about 600 metric tonnes of garbage, including some 350 metric tonnes from Kathmandu Metropolitan City, is produced daily in the Kathmandu Valley.