Kathmandu, May 12: Denizens in the Kathmandu Valley have started feeling less presence of vehicles and people on the roads of Kathmandu thanks to local level polls. Although the roads are not as deserted as during Dashain festival, movements of people and vehicles have surely become thinner, signaling that many people temporarily living in Kathmandu have left for their villages to cast votes in the 13 May poll.
More vehicles are leaving the Kathmandu Valley from various checkpoints. As the number of people leaving Kathmandu is more than the number of people entering daily, traffic pressure has been reduced heavily in major junctions of the capital, said Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police Office. “At present, more than 50,000 passengers are leaving the valley on a daily basis,” SSP and chief of the Office Umesh Raj Joshi said. It is natural to witness reduction in the traffic in the major roads of the valley, he said.
"There are less vehicles on the road now than before. On an average, more than 50,000 people are seen leaving the valley daily,” said SSP Joshi. According to the traffic police, about 400,000 people have left Kathmandu in the last six days.
The government has given a public holiday on May 13 for the election. Even after that, there are public holidays for three consecutive days.
Due to the election and public holidays, many employees working in government and private offices have gone to their hometowns to cast votes in the election, he said.
However, various political parties have reserved vehicles for their voters and activists from Kathmandu. Thus, the number of people reserving vehicles has also increased exponentially. Saroj Sitaula, senior vice-president of the Federation of Nepali Transport Entrepreneurs, said that bookings for small and large vehicles have increased by 30 per cent in the last few days. "Bookings are 30 per cent higher than at other times. They are being done to take all the voters to the villages,” he said. He said that although the name of the party was not mentioned in the bookings, it could be assumed that agents of the candidates had booked the vehicles.
"The number of people going home by buying tickets individually has also increased," he said. He said that there are also many people booking vehicles for the next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to return to Kathmandu.
Traffic office deploys 1,000 traffic police outside Valley
Local level elections are being held on Friday. The government has deployed most of its staff for the election. Similarly, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and Nepali Army have also been mobilised for election security. Not only that, the government has also mobilised 100,000 temporary police. Police personnel deployed in various police units and bureaus have also been deployed for election security.
Traffic police are also deployed in different districts of the country to look after the traffic management apart from the valley.
More than 1,000 traffic police personnel have been deployed in different districts, SSP Joshi said. From the SP to the personnel of the traffic police, they have been deployed in the outer districts.
"More than 1,000 traffic policemen have been deployed outside the Kathmandu Valley without affecting the traffic management," said Joshi.
In normal times, 1,100 traffic policemen are deployed on the roads in the Kathmandu Valley. At present, that number is 500.