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32 May, Kathmandu. Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor Balen Shah presented the policy and program for the upcoming financial year 2081/82 on Friday. Before that, he narrated the achievements of the current fiscal year 2080/81 in 89 points, in which some of the metropolises have been providing daily and regular services for years.
Balen was elected mayor of Kathmandu on 12 June 2079 as an independent candidate. He has been in the news for running dozers on non-standard structures in the first year and has taken some initiatives this year as well. It has been placed in the list of achievements with priority.
Mayor Balen has put the work of providing scholarships to about 20 thousand students in institutional schools, which has been appreciated by many, as the number one achievement. Running the ‘Book Free Friday’ program in public schools and providing 90 hours of training skills training to students of class 9 and 10 have also been included in the list of achievements.
Balen has also counted an additional 15 rupees in the cost of lunch given by the union government to students from pre-primary level to class 5 by the metropolis as an achievement.
The increase in the amount of mid-day meals has helped to sustain the students, but the biggest problem of community schools is the poor educational quality (learning achievement). In this regard, the metropolis has not been able to work in such a way that it can be seen as an achievement.
It is mentioned in the progress report of the metropolis that 374 beds (10 percent of the total beds) have been arranged for free treatment for the poor, helpless and destitute patients in collaboration with 52 hospitals within the Kathmandu metropolis.
5 health clinics have been made urban health promotion centers, 261 pharmacies have been monitored, free ambulance services have been provided, women’s breast cancer and cervical cancer screenings have been conducted by conducting health camps in the wards.
A well-equipped urban health promotion center in every ward is a great need of Kathmandu Mahagar. Some local levels have done significant work on this. Although the resources have been completed, Kathmandu has not been able to do enough work on it.
Similarly, in order to develop the Raithane Newar settlement of the ancient city of Handigaon as a tourist area, a one kilometer road has been made free of traffic for a few hours every Saturday. Many people have been welcoming such an initiative by the metropolis to connect the life and culture of the inner city with tourism.
But Raithane has not been able to advance the plan to revive the Newar settlements. Achievements include the creation of artistic paintings on 1,400 square meters of walls, completion of 40 temples, Sattal, Bihar, and Guthighar projects. He said that 140 temples, Viharas, Chaitya, Pati, Falchas and 28 Dhungedharas and ponds have been cleaned and beautified.
The metropolis has distributed grants to 200 Khalahs, Puchahs, Sanghas active in promoting Jatras, Festivals, Traditional Guthi, Instruments, Language, Art and Culture, which the metropolis has been doing since many years ago.
Topics such as baja competitions were held, initial records of Dabli and Davus were collected, the original names of various old settlements were collected, studies and research were done, and film dialogues were also detailed.
The skill fair organized by the city also attracted a lot of attention, especially from the youth. It is mentioned in the achievement statement of the metropolis that 15 to 30 days of vocational training was given to 2 thousand 715 people out of 69 thousand applications and entrepreneurship program was conducted in 15 wards.
But many of the works that Balen counted as achievements are regular in the metropolis. Saroj Basnet, the former vice-chairman of the Urban Planning Commission of Kathmandu Metropolis, does not consider the Balen style, which is enjoying continuity, to be new. He said that out of more than 150 projects made by the Commission when Vidyasundar Shakya was mayor in the past, many of them have been started, including park construction, heritage reconstruction, etc. He said that the city will benefit from it in the future.
According to Bastet, there is no alternative to continue the projects that could not be implemented in the past. Basnet says that the current leadership of the metropolis is moving forward in a positive manner by continuing the many works and plans prepared by the previous leadership of the metropolis.
“There is no room to doubt the intention of the current mayor, while working in a zealous style, injustice has been done in some places, questions have been raised about the working style,” he said, “It seems that he is trying to give results through regular work in some respects by proceeding on the basis of many policies taken by the metropolis in the past.”
Do not be satisfied with small achievements
Former Vice President Basnet considers the improvement of urban management and service delivery as a challenging task for the Mayor of Kathmandu.
“We have to rely on the federal government and other authorities to do the big work including the development of mass transit, which is essential here,” he said. Yes.’
According to Mayor Balen, last year, 30.03 kilometers of roads have been paved within the metropolis, 22.6 kilometers of footpaths have been built, 8.07 kilometers of roads have been sloped, and 1,300 square meters of squares have been paved with stones. After constructing 7.66 km of sewers, the metropolis has constructed 2.9 km of retaining wall.
4 community buildings, 2 urban health clinic buildings, 4 college and school buildings, 1 public toilet, 2 Falcha bus stops, 2 parks and 10 parks have been constructed.
19,000 square meters of potholes have been filled with infrastructure through an ambulance, and the work of connecting 2,089 smart street lights within the metropolitan area with an agreement with Vidyut Pradhirkan when Vidyut Sunder Shakya was mayor has been completed this year.
Mayor Balen informed that more than 33 encroached plantations have been brought within the metropolis and 351 illegal physical structures have been removed. Fire hydrants are connected to some narrow urban streets where fire engines cannot go.
The metropolis has said that it has started classifying waste into sources in wards number 5, 10, 12, 24, 25 and 27. Jabaki Balen said that since he was elected as mayor, he has prioritized waste management. Mahagar also decided to categorize the waste into sources in all the wards.
It is also mentioned in the one-year achievement statement that free sanitary distribution for school girls, continuation of teaching in Nepali language from class 1 to class 8, environment and teaching training for students and teachers.
In the progress report, composting has been started in public schools, a biomass plant has been started in Tekuma, and health and safety training has been provided to 320 sanitation workers.
The metropolis claims to have collected and managed 2,953 tons of garbage from Bishnumati, Dhobikhola, Chakhunchakhushi, and Bhachakhushi rivers and 3,862 tons of garbage by cleaning sewers and drains.
The metropolis has sold 1 thousand 972 bags of compost at non-concessional rates, the sales process of 40 tons of non-decomposable dry waste management has progressed, 240 students have been given awareness about waste management and training in making organic fertilizers has also been announced as an achievement.
The metropolis has said that more than 4,300 people have been employed for a few days under the Prime Minister’s Employment Program.
According to Mayor Balen, last year, the metropolis has spent 1.3 billion beruji. Revenue online payment system has been run through 6 payment gateways, fee collection, pre-booking scan-to-pay facility has been provided at Balaju Park, Ratna Park through back counter.
The number of taxpayers has increased by 35 thousand 666 and compared to 27 May 2080, the internal revenue has increased by 13.44 million till 27 May 2081. Mayor Balen has said that 36 laws, including 12 laws, 2 regulations, 3 guidelines, 17 procedures, and 2 standards, have been approved and implemented.
It is mentioned in the progress statement released by Mayor Balen that 41 children who were victims of child labor and violence were rescued, wheelchairs, commode chairs, walkers and white canes were distributed to 100 people with disabilities, and 35 people who were helpless and destitute were sent to human services ashram.
It is also mentioned in the details that 5 thousand 464 community dogs and cats were sterilized and 1 thousand 840 dead animals were managed. Mayor Balen also said that monitoring of water, dairy, slaughterhouse, vegetable and fruit, meat market and sweets and grocery stores has been done.
Balen has informed that 35,000 trees have been planted in 140 places in the metropolis.
Capacity building training of yoga and gym instructors for 300 people, psychosocial counseling training for 240 people, providing free blood and blood components to 1 thousand 355 people are also included in Balen’s available list.
Mayor Balen also included the fact that the city is going to establish its own data center by installing 138 cc cameras in the metropolitan area and buying small vehicles that run on alternative fuel to transport garbage.
The progress report of the metropolis also includes clearing the parking lot on the black-paved road and removing 260 workshops running in the road area and taking action against 15 thousand 771 vehicles parked illegally.
The metropolis has said that more than 150 restaurants, banks and other toilets have been made public. Balen started this campaign as soon as he was elected mayor, but even now the number of mentions in this campaign has not increased.
The construction of public toilets by the metropolis itself has not been able to pick up speed.
A ‘Pelican Crossing’ has been established near Kathmandu District Court and this year a report has been prepared after studying the condition of sky bridges. The metropolis has also stated that it has listed the roads under the concept of Greater Thamel. According to Mayor Balen, there is a concept paper of the ‘Mission 2100 Golden Plan’ with the 20-year strategic development plan of the metropolis.
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