Very old and ill-maintained public vehicles are the major causes of fatal accidents and pollution, causing immense problems to public health

There are a total of 37,967 public vehicles, including buses, trucks and mini-trucks and micro-buses registered with the Bagmati Transport Management Office. But the office does not have any data as to how many of them have exceeded the 20-year-old mark based on which they are to be scrapped by next year. In March 2015, the government decided

to impose a ban on the 20-year-old public vehicles from plying on the roads. It means that the vehicles which are already 20 years old will have to be sent to the scrap yard by end of 2017. If the government decision is to be implemented, the 20-year-old public vehicles have to stay off the road to maintain the environment, health and reduce emission. Very old and ill-maintained public vehicles are the major causes of fatal accidents and pollution, causing immense problems to public health. The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has instructed its zonal offices to keep records of all the public vehicles and maintain a data stating which of the vehicles have crossed the 20-year time limit fixed by it. However, the concerned zonal transport management offices have failed to identify how many of the public vehicles have crossed the limit.

As per the law and regulations mention of the date of purchase of any public vehicle in the Bill Book at the time of registration with the concerned zonal transport management office is a must. This is the Bill Book based on which the traffic police determine how old a public vehicle is and when it needs to be scrapped. But due to lack of scientific database system the DoTM has not been able to clearly state how many of the public vehicles have exceeded the 20-year limit. It would be convenient for the department to come up with a clear plan of phasing out the old vehicles from the capital city and other parts of the country if it has a scientific database of all the public vehicles. Then, the traffic police can also impose a ban on old vehicles from operating if it gets a list of such vehicles already 20 years old.

Another factor is that the government has not been able to implement its decision due to strong lobbying from the public vehicle operators. They have demanded that the government provide them compensation or other forms of incentives if their old vehicles were to be removed from the roads. Nor has the government been able to implement the Vehicle Fitness Centre (VFC) set up five years ago to test the condition of all the public vehicles. Had it been made mandatory for all the public vehicles to pass the VFC most of the public vehicles would have either well-maintained or phased them out. Most of the public vehicles which provide services to a large number of people do not meet the standard criteria set by law and regulations. Very old and poorly maintained public vehicles are not only the major cause of accident but also polluting the environment and settlements. It is the duty of the DoTM to fully exercise it authority as provided by the law. No leniency should be shown to those flouting the law.

Wildfire incidents

With the advent of the warm and dry and windy season  reports are pouring in from different parts of the country  about wildfire incidents. Drought can also be attributed to the damage caused. Incidents of fire are now increasing and various community forests in Bajura district have already caused much damage. In some places the fires have gone out of control. At least five community forests have been in a municipality of this district alone. Also there are news about fire destroying as much as 30,000 hectares of forests in the community and national forests in Udayapur district. The security personnel, locals and forest staffers are doing their best to contain the fire but they are facing a difficult battle to take the fires under control. Locals who rely heavily on the community forests are now facing difficulty, and they are unable to graze their cattle besides suffering other damage. It is not yet known how many of the fires started and spread. The strong winds have made it an arduous task to douse out the fires. As such, we need to take swift action with trained fire fighting personnel and also equipment before the fires destroy more valuable community forests.