While the Urban Development Ministry claims that it"s ´city beautification project´ has already started to show positive results, the Ministry of Local Development stresses that it has adopted "go green" policy. [break]
According to Secretary at the Urban Development Ministry Kishore Thapa, City beautification project works include removing hoarding boards from private homes, controlling sound pollution, setting up well managed slaughter houses, managing cobweb of wires, using solid waste to generate power, encouraging use of electric vehicles, phasing out outdated vehicles and encouraging public to promote greenery, among others. “We are making wholesome effort to bring about the good changes. We hope to make Kathmandu and other cities far more beautiful than they are now,” he said.
The ministry had announced the city beautification project two months ago. Projects related to this have sped up in Dharan, Pokhara, Tikapur, Ghorahi and Dhankuta already, according to Thapa. He added that the problems of sanitation and drainage management are in equal priority.
Similarly, Shanta Bahadur Shrestha, secretary at the Local Development Ministry, informed that the ministry is also focusing on waste management, tree plantation and preservation of water resources in the cities. Apart from this, sewerage management, disaster management and climate change management are in the pipeline.
“Our aim is to make the cities environmentally sound. This has to happen at the local level. We have prepared a draft related to this and this will hopefully be approved by the Cabinet soon,” Shrestha said. “The target is to introduce environment friendly governance at the grassroots level within the current fiscal year.”
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