Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: The obstruction that has been going on for the past five days to dispose the garbage of the Kathmandu Valley at the Bancharedanda landfill site has been removed. Vehicles stranded on the road and loaded with garbage in Kathmandu have headed to the landfill site after the obstruction was cleared.

Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Physical Infrastructure and Transport and Urban Development Kulman Ghising pledged to fulfill the demands put forth by the locals of the Bancharedanda Landfill Site.

Minister Ghising, Urban Development Secretary Gopal Sigdel, Chief District Officers of Kathmandu, Nuwakot and Dhading and Kathmandu Metropolitan City officials had reached the Bancharedanda landfill site this morning to resolve the problem.

The team also inspected the site and interacted with the mayor of Dhuniveshi Municipality of Dhading, the chairperson of Kakani Rural Municipality of Nuwakot, ward chairpersons of the affected wards and the locals.

On the occasion, Minister Ghising pledged to implement past agreements and agreements reached with the affected locals. He demanded 15 days’ time to move ahead with the agreement implementation process and requested not to obstruct the disposal of garbage.

“Many agreements were reached in the past, I have studied all of them, now I have not come to give assurance, I will implement it, do not obstruct the waste management, give a message by removing the obstruction, we will resolve the problem amicably through dialogue and dialogue with the affected people,” he said, urging the locals to move ahead with short-term and long-term plans for waste management. We will take policy decisions for the implementation of past agreements. ’

A committee comprising all stakeholders is to be formed under the coordination of the Ministry of Urban Development for the management of leach collected by the locals. The company has pledged to immediately operate a pump to recycle the lichhad collected in the pond to prevent it from going into the river. Now the pump is broken. A monitoring committee will be formed comprising 1 member each from the Ministry of Urban Development, Kathmandu Metropolitan City and the affected local levels to address the complaints of rampant dumping of garbage at the landfill site.

Minister Ghising pledged to install the required lights at the site for the management of waste at night and said that the installation of lights will start from Monday itself. He directed NEA’s Managing Director and Nuwakot distribution center chief for the same. He said that necessary decision would be taken from the Council of Ministers to provide the public land identified in different places to the local levels for scientific management.

He urged the locals to understand the situation as it would take some time to complete the Supplementary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as four seasonal data was required to determine the area affected by the landfill site. Minister Ghising said that the process of land acquisition will move ahead accordingly as the affected areas will be identified after the EI.

He added that the legal hurdles in the process forwarded by the Investment Board for the long-term waste management would be resolved by involving the Mayors Forum of Kathmandu Valley.

Mayor of Dhunibasi Municipality Bal Krishna Acharya, Kakani Rural Municipality Chair Suman Tamang, ward chairpersons of the affected wards and local stakeholders said that the problem of waste disposal has been surfaced time and again due to lack of implementation of the agreement. He also stressed the need of moving ahead with an action plan for long-term waste management, segregating the place and people from the dumping site and implementing the agreements reached in the past.