By Our Reporter
Balendra Shah is the first Mayor of Kathmandu who has dared to challenge the federal government by stopping the collection of garbage from the Singha Durbar, the central secretariat of the government, Sheetal Niwas, the presidential palace, and the Baluwatar official residence of the Prime Minister.
It has been over a week since the KMC stopped collecting the waste from the VIP areas after the KMC failed to receive government cooperation to remove landless squatters from many places in the city.
After the police did not cooperate with the KMC in the latter’s drive to free the land occupied by individuals in the name of landless squatters from the Gairigaun area, Mayor Balen openly challenged the government by announcing not to collect the garbage from Singha Durbar and other VIP areas. He translated his words into actions by giving the order to stop garbage collection from April 7.
He also clarified in detail through a statement that he took the decision when 14 ministries did not cooperate with the KMC.
Elected as an independent candidate, the Mayor was not expected to take such a bold decision, but he did and his action has received wide public support. This is evident from the fact that the government itself has started managing garbage from Singha Durbar.
Although Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma delivered threatening speeches against the Mayor for a few days, they have now stopped chiding the Mayor.
The Mayor was so bold in his statement that he said the government could shift Singha Durbar or even the capital city if it did not cooperate with the KMC. He also said that the country could not be developed unless the leaders of Singha Durbar were dumped in the Bancharedanda landfill.
A case was filed against the Mayor in the Supreme Court but the SC did not conduct the hearing on Tuesday citing time constraint
The tussle between Mayor Shah and the government is likely to prolong unless the government becomes ready for a dialogue. Obviously, the parties which have been in power since 1990 are responsible for spoiling the beauty of Kathmandu, and Balen has been elected with a slogan to correct that. People also know well this. Considering the public sentiment and popularity of the Mayor the government has not dared to take any step against him because any such action could spark a movement which could even unseat the government. As such, the government is in defending position and has no option but to be ready for talks to meet the demands of KMC or be ready to manage the garbage itself.
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