Huge piles of garbage collected on Singha Durbar premises

Confrontation between Kathmandu Metropolis and Federal Government

KATHMANDU, April 12: Garbage has not been cleared from the main administrative center of the country, Singha Durbar, for four days. There is a foul stench inside the main administrative center of the country because of the daily accumulation of around five tons of garbage which hasn’t been picked up for the past three days. According to Mitra Ghimire, general secretary of Solid Waste Management Association of Nepal (SWMAN) and Chairperson of Pariwartan Sewa Nepal Pvt Ltd, KMC Mayor Balendra (Balen) Shah had given strict instructions to them on Friday evening not to pick up garbage from Singh Durbar, President's Residence and Prime Minister's Residence from Saturday. "The KMC has warned that it will revoke our license if we pick up the garbage," Ghimire said, "That's why we have stopped picking up garbage in those three government offices."

The Federal Secretariat Construction and Management Office has given the responsibility to Pariwartan Sewa Nepal to collect garbage in Singha Durbar, Sheetal Niwas, Minister's Quarter and Chief Justice's Quarter. For this, the federal government has been paying Rs 0.55 million per month. For three days, the tippers of Pariwartan Sewa Nepal Pvt Ltd, which have been collecting garbage, have not entered Singha Durbar, Baluwatar and Sheetal Niwas. Due to this, the conflict between the federal government and the metropolis is increasing. Nabin Manandhar, spokesperson of the metropolis, said that garbage will not be collected in Singha Durbar, Sheetal Niwas and Baluwatar until the federal government starts talks with them. The federal government is angry with the metropolis's decision not to collect garbage.

“We built the landfill site at Banchare Danda by spending 1 billion. We also built a road by spending 110 million. Garbage within the metropolis is collected by the private sector. The work of the metropolis has only been to charge a fee of 400 rupees per tip from the garbage collected by the private sector. Rabindra Bohra, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development and Director of the Banchare Danda Sanitary Landfill Site Project Implementation Unit, said, "While according to the Solid Waste Management Act, 2011 (2068 BS), all the work including the construction of the landfill site, waste collection and management is the responsibility of the local government.” After the metropolis refused to build a landfill site, we built it. According to Bohra, the federal government is preparing to make Singha Durbar a model area and make it zero waste.

For this, an organization called Hikyas has sent us a proposal. We are going to talk to him," he said. According to Bohra, if the proposal of Hikyas is accepted, the waste management of the Singha Durbar will be done only for Rs 0.8 to 1 million. At present, the government is spending Rs 0.55 million every month for the waste management of Singha Durbar. It is said that the federal government is preparing to entrust the waste management of Singha Durbar, Baluwatar and Sheetal Niwas to the private sector rather than asking the metropolis for waste management.

According to the ministry, the government has a plan to process the processed waste from the waste coming out of Singha Durbar, Sheetal Niwas and Baluwatar and turn the rotting waste into compost. Bohra said that the Ministry of Urban Development had an internal discussion on Monday regarding the issue of garbage not being picked up in Singha Durbar, Sheetal Niwas and Baluwatar for the past three days, but they are not ready to hold talks with the metropolis immediately. He emphasized that there should be coordination between the federal government and the local government to manage waste.

On the other hand, Mayor Shah has stopped garbage collection in Singha Durbar saying that the federal government has not supported the metropolis in matters such as squatter management, roads, peace and security. On Friday, the metropolis tried to remove the slum of land squatters located in Tinkune, Kathmandu. That attempt was not successful. A few days ago, the city also made a similar attempt in Thapathali. Even in Thapathali's attempt, the metropolis had failed. The metropolis has been asking the federal government to remove the squatters, but the federal government has been withdrawing saying that the legal process has not been completed. The argument of the representatives of the federal government is that the responsibility of managing the squatters should be given to the squatters commission.

Manandhar, the spokesman of the metropolis, said that the representatives of the federal government did not make a formal proposal for talks on the matter of not picking up the garbage inside the Singha Durbar till Monday evening. "Talks have come verbally but no one has formally proposed talks," said Manandhar. Manandhar says that it was halted to collect garbage from Singha Durbar due to the federal government's non-cooperation in matters such as squatter management.