May 21, Kathmandu. At 8 o’clock on Monday morning, the team of road department came down to Indrachowk with asphalt, ballast and some workers needed for road tipper and truck.
On 12th June, the Kathmandu Metropolitan Municipality sent a team from the Divisional Road Office under the Road Department to remove the pitch of the road from Indrachok to Juddha Shalik, which was cut by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City to expand the footpath.
As soon as we got the news that the road office team had arrived, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City sent a team with the city police chief there. Together with Mayor Balen Shah, UML President on Facebook Criticism of KP Sharma Oli Wrote the status.
Balen raised the issue of the land issue of Giribandhu Tea Estate and accused Oli of interfering in his work by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure headed by UML leader Raghuveer Mahaseth.
Balen wrote, “The footpath that we are going to build in New Road has started to be made a road again by using all the power of the state to hide the scandal of 10,000 crores and to forget the people.” 
While the department was trying to avoid the pitch, the city police of Kathmandu Metropolitan City arrived, there was a brief conversation between the two parties and the city police returned.
How did the city police back?
After the contractor company that got the contract from the Metropolitan Corporation cut the road pitch in the New Road area on 12th June, the team of the Road Division Office Kathmandu seized the pitch cutter for cutting the road pitch without permission.
In the afternoon of the same day, the Road Department and the Divisional Road Office of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City dumped dust on the road outside Kathmandu.
After that, the road division sent a letter to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City to postpone the pitch itself. After being ignored by the metropolis, the divisional road office went to remove the pitch itself on Monday.
“They did not respond to the letter, after waiting for the next 3 days there was no work, so we pitched this morning,” said Pramod Khatiwada, Information Officer of Division Road Kathmandu.
According to Khatiwada, the metropolis has cut a 160 meter long pitch on one side of the road and 50 meter long on the other side. Its width is 1.15 meters.
After knowing that the road team had avoided the pitch, a team of around one hundred city police including City Police Force Chief Rajunath Pandey, East Zone Commander SP Dinesh Aryal, another SP Manoj Lamichhane reached New Road. Some locals also came with the support of the city police. But local residents and Nepal Police were also there in large numbers.
City police chief Pandey asked not to interfere in the work of the metropolis. But the engineers of the road department replied that they will work according to the instructions of the road department.
The DSP on behalf of the Nepal Police also asked the city police to return as they were instructed to avoid the pitch anyway. Navin Manandhar, the spokesman of the metropolis who reached Indra Chowk, tried to call the ward presidents of Ward No. 22 and 24 for a discussion. But they did not succeed.
After a while, the city police stationed at Indrachowk began to rush to the road and returned to the Metropolitan Municipality office from Juddha Shalik towards Dharmapath.
Chinikaji Maharjan, the ward president of Ward No. 22, which belongs to the New Road area, stood in favor of not widening the footpath, i.e. in favor of the road department. Along with him, some local youths also came to the place where the pitch was removed.
Ward President of Ward No. 24 Vinod Rajbhandari and former Ward President of Ward No. 25 Neelkaji Shakya were in favor of widening the footpath. They were also at Indra Chowk when they were about to leave the pitch. They refused to respond to reporters about the road pitch being avoided.
Maharjan was elected from CPN-UML while Rajbhandari was elected from Nepali Congress.
The work of the road department is wrong: Spokesperson Manandhar
Naveen Manandhar, the spokesperson of Kathmandu Metropolis, said that it was wrong for the road department to delay the pitch dug by the metropolis to make the footpath.
There was no need to disrupt the work done by the municipality to provide services to the residents of its area. We do our work continuously. Now it will be demolished again and pitched,’ said spokesperson Manandhar.
He said that the residents of New Road area are divided by the issue of footpath expansion. Ward president No. 22 is against the expansion of the footpath, while Ward president No. 24 is in favor. Due to this, the local people are also in favor and opposition”, he said.
One side was trying to stop the road department team including the city police from working, while the other side was asking the city police not to interfere.
In both street and metropolitan legal proceedings
The secretariat of Balen Shah, the mayor of the metropolis, said that legal action will be taken against the action of the road department.
‘We have worked according to the opinion of the villagers and locals. The representatives of the ward will discuss this issue with their people. Then we will decide how to proceed legally and technically,’ said Bhupadev Shah, Chief Private Secretary of Mayor Balen.
Spokesperson of the road office, Khatiwada Mahanagara said that since the road under the department has been cut, it has proceeded with the legal process.
“We have gone through the process of taking action according to section 30 of the Public Roads Act 2031. It is expected that the pitch will not be cut now. If the pitch that was postponed today is cut again, it will proceed legally,” said Khatiwada.
Picture: Vikas Shrestha and Aryan Dhimal
