Outraged locals had taken to the streets following a news report published in Nagarik daily on 24 January 2011, according to which 250 taxis and a number of minibuses and three wheelers-- all of them 20 years old--were being moved to Chitwan. [break]However, despite the protest, 150 of the old vehicles have already reached Chitwan, a reliable source claims.
As mass protests alone could not stop those out to translocate the vehicles, a Mangalpur local, Madhusudhan Neupane, filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court on 25 July. Two days later the apex court issued an order not to send the old vehicles to the district. The matter is to be discussed in court on August 5 in the presence of both sides.
Neupane has stated that every citizen has equal right to health and it is utterly wrong to disallow old vehicles only in Kathmandu, Lumbini and Pokhara. “Is our health less important than that of people living in those three places?” he asked, adding, “The health hazards of pollution from old and outdated vehicles need no exaggeration.”
In his writ petition he has sought that the court review the government´s decision to allow old vehicles to be used in places other than Kathmandu for five more years, he added. “The decision is utterly discriminatory,” he said, speaking at a public hearing.
Meanwhile, locals and transport entrepreneurs in the district have threatened intensified protests if the old vehicles are sent there. “The government must scrap vehicles that are too old for use. Shunting these from one place to another cannot be a solution,” Neupane said.
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