Okharpauwa residents created obstacles on the road leading to the Aletar landfill site early Tuesday morning, leaving more than 20 garbage trucks stranded. None of the trucks was allowed to dump garbage till late Tuesday evening despite the government´s assurance to address the protestors´ demands within a couple of weeks.
Agitating Okharpauwa residents have demanded that the government build a bridge over the Kolpu khola on the Ratamate-Galchhi road. They have said that they would not call off their agitation unless the government publishes a tender notice for construction of the bridge.
In a two-hour long talks at the Ministry of Local Development Tuesday evening, the government assured to publish tender notice within two weeks. But, agitators rejected the government´s verbal assurance outright. “We want it in writing,” Shyam Sundar Balami, an agitating local said. “We have been betrayed many a time by the government in the past as we relied on verbal assurances.”
Earlier, the government had, according to Balami, struck an agreement with Okharpauwa locals to build the bridge on July 30, asking them to call off their agitation. “However, bridge construction has not started,” he says. “Hence, our agitation.”
However, according to Dr Sumitra Amatya, the general manger of the Solid Waste Management and Resources Mobilization Center (SWMRMC), locals did not warn the government before disrupting garbage disposal. “Locals all of a sudden phoned us Monday evening,” she told myrepublica.com. “And, they obstructed all the vehicles Tuesday morning.”
Worse, another group of agitators on Tuesday warned the government to address their demands of drinking water, irrigation and road construction within one week. “We have not been able to handle one group,” she said. “Yet, another group of locals has threatened us.”
Due to almost regular strikes by different groups, the streets in the Valley remain littered with rotting garbage. Over 5,000 tons of garbage has already piled up in the streets making the Valley stinking. The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has disposed of only about 500 tons of garbage after local body staff called off their strike.
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