KATHMANDU, AUGUST 9
Seventeen vehicles carrying garbage from Kathmandu and excavators used to manage waste at Bancharedanda landfill site were vandalised last night by the locals residing around Sisdol road section.
Dhanapati Sapkota, head of Kathmandu's municipal police, said 14 garbage tippers, two dozers, and an excavator were vandalised by the unidentified group of people.
He said locals residing along the road from Tinpiple to Bancharedanda had been partially obstructing trucks ferrying garbage for the past couple of days. They completely halted the movement yesterday morning, forcing KMC to mobilise municipal police to escort trucks filled with garbage to the landfill site. However, some angered locals vandalised all the vehicles after police returned after escorting trucks to the landfill site last evening.
Vehicles that were vandalised belong to private waste management companies, who have leased them to KMC.
None of the vandals have been identified so far. Meanwhile, KMC has written to security agencies to identify miscreants and take them into custody.
Locals residing around Sisdol and Bancharedanda, where the newly constructed landfill site is located, have been protesting against the disposal of Kathmandu valley's waste there.
Locals had asked the government to meet several demands before letting it manage waste there. For eight years they have been asking the government to blacktop the road segment that connects Kathmandu to the landfill site. But, the government has not been able to blacktop the entire 28-kilometre segment in all these years.
Recently, they had let the government ferry trucks carrying garbage on the condition that the government would upgrade the road within a few weeks. But, the government has not been able to make any significant progress, citing monsoon season. Other demands, such as turning old landfill site into a garden and ensuring jobs for every household in the vicinity of the landfill site, have also not been met by the government.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 10, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
