Authorities to develop VVIP area as 'zero-waste' zone
KATHMANDU, APRIL 24
Waste collected inside the country's major administrative hub at Singha Durbar and other VIP premises were finally lifted on the 16th day today.
Waste collection inside Singha Durbar, president's residence at Shital Niwas and prime minister's residence at Baluwatar had been halted after Kathmandu Metropolitan City's Mayor Balendra Shah decided not to collect the waste, citing that the federal government had been indifferent to the concerns of the local government.
Shah's move, however, was later moved to the court by advocate Padam Bahadur Shrestha, who filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court to annul this decision. The SC ordered KMC to collect the waste within three days, saying that obstructing waste collection was against the prevailing laws and constitutional provisions.
Mitra Prasad Ghimire of Pariwartan Sewa Pvt Ltd that was managing waste from Singha Durbar and other VVIP areas said they had already started working to collect waste and would manage the waste at the landfill site by tonight.
Ghimire was asked by Mayor Shah's secretary to collect the waste. Later, Mayor Shah took to Facebook and said they would abide by the SC's decision, but reminded that the federal government had yet to fulfil numerous similar orders given by the SC.
"Verdicts, orders and directions from the court should be followed not only by Kathmandu metropolis but also by the federal government and everyone else," Mayor Shah wrote in his Facebook page. He further gave few instances wherein the SC had asked the federal government to act accordingly regarding the matter of Kathmandu metropolis, which the central government had turned a deaf ear to.
Meanwhile, the amount of waste collected in the last 16 days in the VIP areas was drastically less than in normal days. In normal days, each place would produce around fine tonnes of waste. But in the last 16 days only 25 tonnes of waste was accumulated inside Singha Durbar area, while 20 tonnes waste had accumulated at the prime minister's and president's residences in the last 16 days. This is because large amount of waste was segregated and utilised as per its value during these days. The saleable goods were salvaged from the waste and sold to scrap collectors, bio-degradable waste was sent for animals to feed or converted into fertilisers and only other unused waste had been collected.
Taking this as a lesson, Pariwartan Sewa Pvt Ltd has said that they will now go for 'zero-waste' concept in these areas.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 25, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
