Mayor’s ‘Clean the City’ campaign starts today

Published On: June 1, 2017 01:10 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, June 1: Newly-elected Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Bidya Sunder Shakya has announced that city garbage will be collected before dawn from Thursday as part of a 'Clean the City' campaign. This is the mayor's first major initiative “to improve things” in the capital.

After assuming office at Sundhara on Wednesday, the mayor and his team decided to clean the city to address the dust problem in the city that has been choking the capital for months.

“Our first board meeting decided to work for controlling dust in the city,” Shakya informed the media after the meeting. “For this, we have planned a road cleaning program from tomorrow (Thursday) and it will be continued.”

Stating that the campaign will start from the Basbari area, he asked all to join the campaign at 6 AM on Thursday.

“Controlling the dust in Kathmandu has become a common issue of all political parties and I request you all to gather in front of Sahid Gangalal Hospital, Basbari,” he said. “All efforts made earlier to control dust pollution have failed. So, I have a plan that we will clean the dust by sweeping the roads and footpaths.”

He further said that his team is committed to making a corruption-free KMC in his five-year term.

Shakya also announced to create free wi-fi zones at cultural, historical, religious and public place, parks and other tourist places inside the metropolis. The decision included the construction of public toilets after identifying space and keeping the capital city open 24 hours through effective initiatives.

Issuing the 11-point decision made by the first meeting of the municipal council of KMC, mayor Shakya also unveiled a plan to collect waste from houses and alleys and transfer it to dumping sites before sunrise.

Likewise, they also decided to exempt the cost of endorsing a blueprint to rebuild the houses damaged during the April 2015 earthquake.

The meeting also legalized Nepal and Nepali languages as the languages of official business and use Ranjana script in KMC's letter pads.

“Men and women above 80 (male) and 75 (female) years of old respectively will be provided additional Rs 12,000 a year as an incentive by the metropolitan city office,” reads the statement issued by the new mayor.