After he was elected the Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Bidhya Sundar Shakya had announced an ambitious 200-point plan. One year on, none of the plans have been fully implemented.
-Khilak Budhathoki and Himal Lamsal : Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
In June 2017, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) unveiled its 187-point programs and policy under 18 headings. Some of the plans were listed under 101 tasks to be accomplished in 100 days of the mayor’s inauguration. Unveiling his policy and program at Rastriya Sabhagriha on July 14, 2017, Mayor Shakya had said, “We will turn Kathmandu into a city which is beautiful and worth living. We will not only reduce air pollution, but we will also develop it as a city with all the amenities. We have announced policy and program through the budget.” But going by the progress on the promises made by the mayor, it becomes clear that he had neither a well thought-out plan nor willpower to do it.
A view of Dharma Path, where the KMC has proposed to build ‘smart vertical car parking’ and ‘underground parking.’
The plan to build 50 smart public toilets and 50 e-toilets (toilets with modern technology) didn’t require huge efforts. In fact, the plans had been in place even before Shakya’s election. In 2013, the KMC had initiated the project; Shakya wanted to complete it. But the KMC is yet to build public toilets. Lack of public toilets in KMC has caused inconvenience to tourists and travelers.
The number of vehicles has also grown in the city. But lack of parking spaces has caused congestions on the road. Whether they are public or private vehicles, drivers park them wherever they want. New Road is an example of the mess. Cars and motorbikes are parked on the road in the shopping district. In order to resolve the traffic problem, the KMC had initiated the concept of ‘smart parking’ three years ago.
Mayor Shakya had launched a plan to set up ‘smart vertical car parking’ and ‘underground parking’ to tackle the traffic woes. But a year after the launch, the project hasn’t made any strides. Officials at the KMC, however, claimed the work was moving ahead. “We are studying about the parking system,” Mahesh Kafle, head of the KMC’s public-private partnership unit, said. “We will open bidding for the project after we receive the findings of the study.”
The tendency to announce big ticket projects but failure to accomplish even small ones has upset locals. “Earlier, we were persuaded by the officials who said there were no people’s representatives. But even after the elections, things are same. It’s frustrating,” said Ganapati Lal Shrestha, a local. Failure to deliver on issues such as controlling air pollution, easing traffic management has made locals exasperated, according to Shrestha.
The KMC has failed to deliver on even minor services. The project to develop an app for the residents of the KMC to express their grievances wasn’t implemented. As a result, people flock to the offices of KMC to air their grievances to the mayor, who cannot spare time for them. There were plans to set up media centres at heritage sites, parks and other public places, but it too hasn’t been implemented.
A failure to act
Why has the KMC failed to complete even the smallest of the projects? Secretary Yadav Prasad Koirala, who was recently appointed as the KMC’s Chief Administrative Officer, said, “The employees are not disciplined. No one supervised them when the local bodies were vacant. That’s why even now they don’t work according to the plan.”
Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, Secretary of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, said the policies and programs were approved without much thought and preparations. “We had directed officials to prepare detailed profiles and formulate policies and programs according to the needs and conditions,” he said, “The schemes didn’t work because the elected officials failed to carry out any study beforehand.”
The policies and programs were formulated without any study or research, according to a staff at the KMC. “There is a tendency to make policies and programs without any preparation and study,” he said, “Given such a background, how can these schemes be implemented?” He said the officials were interested in plans that garnered attention rather than ones that could be implemented.
Gyanendra Karki, the KMC spokesperson, said delay in implementation of projects was common. He said, “It’s not possible to implement all plans. We have to take into account all aspects of them, which takes time.”
Contrary to Karki’s claim, the delay wasn’t caused by the time spent on analyzing various aspects of the plan. Because the KMC has not initiated any study or research to implement the plans. For example, smart parking in Dharma Path and Teku was part of KMC’s policies and program last year. Until now, it has not been studied. But, Mahesh Kafle, head of the KMC’s public-private partnership unit, claimed the study of the project was going forward.
A design of the proposed modern toilet (Photo courtesy of KMC)
In his first meeting after he was elected the Mayor, Bidhya Sundar Shakya decided to launch ‘Clean Kathmandu’ campaign. The decision of 31 May 2017 is still only on the paper. There are several reasons behind the failure of the ‘Clean Kathmandu’ campaign. The KMC did not purchase the equipment such as broomer, jet machine, tree planting machine needed to clean the city. But, Karki, the spokesman, claimed the KMC was working on it. “Under ‘Clean Kathmandu’ campaign, we have planted trees and cleaned the city,” he said, “The campaign has not met its expectations because a lot of work on infrastructure is ongoing.”
It was also mentioned that Kathmandu will meet the goal of ‘No Mask City’ by controlling pollution. This plan is also in limbo. Forget the long term plans to control pollution, the KMC has not even installed any air quality measuring instruments. Koirala, the chief executive officer, blamed on a dozen offices working under the KMC for the failure. “The responsibility of many bodies often clash. So there’s confusion about implementing the policy and program.”
Rebuilding of heritage sites is yet another project the KMC could not execute. President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on January 16, 2016 launched the campaign to rebuild Rani Pokhari after the earthquake. In its policy and program, the KMC had said it would speed up the reconstruction of heritage sites including Rani Pokhari, Kasthamandap and Dharahara. However, reconstruction of the three heritage sites has not started yet.
The budget unspent
In the previous fiscal year, the KMC unveiled a budget of Rs. 7.75 billion. After the local bodies were elevated to the status of local government, it released a budget of Rs. 12.87 billion for the current fiscal year. After the budget, many local residents had hoped infrastructure will be developed.
However, even half of the budget has not been spent on 11 months of the current fiscal year. The KMC has spent only Rs.4.381 billion in the month till mid-June. It has spent Rs. 680 million on administration till mid-June.
That the KMC hasn’t spent the budget means the work hasn’t proceeded well. “We had the plan, but could not implement it,” said Mukunda Rijal, the chairman of KMC ward-16. “In such a situation, how could you spend the budget?”
Lack of technology-friendly environment and human resources capable of formulating work plan have impacted the implementation of the plan and policy. “While the officials tend to publicise the plans forwarded by wards, departments, sections, they are forwarded without any study or framework for work plan,” he said. “These projects are proposed neither after a proper study nor with any framework for workpla.” Koirala said such issues will not be repeated as the plans for the upcoming fiscal year were developed with strategies to address the problems.
