A group of 30 people headed by Shyam Sundar Balami questioned the legitimacy of the struggle committee headed by Chandra Bahadur Shrestha. The new group includes Balami, Shyam Sundar Shrestha, Ram Gotame, Hari Bahadur Balami, Megh Bahadur Sunuwar, Ram Balami and 24 others. [break]
“Since yesterday´s deal doesn´t fully address our demands, we´ve called for a strike. The strike will continue till our demands are met,” said Balami. Balami said that though the deal promises to prioritize the locals of highly affected areas, such areas haven´t been specified.
According to Balami, the affected areas include VDC 4, 5, 7 and 8 of Okharpauwa and 6 and 9 of Chhetri Deurali.
Earlier this week, on August 22, a 17-member struggle committee headed by Chandra Bahadur had called for a strike that lasted for eight days piling almost 6,000 tons of wastes in the streets of Kathmandu Valley.
They had put forward a 13-point demand, including employment to locals, construction of an 80-bed hospital, proper management of the landfill sites and a three kilometer blacktopped road in every ward.
Sumitra Amatya, executive director at Solid Waste Management and Research Center (SMWRC) said it was the heights of what one can tolerate. “It´s too much,” Amatya said.
“How are we to ascertain who is legitimate and who´s not?” she questioned, adding that the Kathmandu Metropolitan City would use force to dispose of the garbage at the landfill site on Wednesday. “If they allow us to pass, it´s fine, else we´ll arrest them.”
On Monday, a group of Aletar locals had inked a four-point deal with the Ministry of Local Development agreeing to withdraw their strike.
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