Damak's waste collection halted after abuse of employees

By Our Correspondent,Damak, Apr. 3: Next Era Energy Pvt. Ltd., the company responsible to collect waste from Damak and use it to produce power, has stopped collecting waste from the city since Saturday. 

According to Suman Shrestha, supervisor at the company, he and some other employees were physically and verbally abused at the main chowk of Namuna Bazaar in Ward No. 6 of Damak Municipality.

"We had visited the chowk to collect money in return for waste collection. 

Verbal abuse was something we were used to in the area; however, this time, we were abused and attacked in a planned manner by some individuals," said Shrestha.

Speaking to The Rising Nepal, director general of the company Bimal Khatiwada said, "The employees are afraid to visit the city area to collect waste after the incident. 

There are some people who do not want Damak to be clean and healthy."

Next Era Energy had established a plant with an aim to generate power from the collected waste. 

However, they have not been able to distribute the generated power, which can be used as a liquid petroleum gas, in lack of necessary infrastructure assured by government authorities.

"We have been disposing the collected waste regularly despite the need to dispose the produced energy as well. We are suffering losses economically as well. However, the authorities are not serious," said Khatiwada. The company has demanded action against the abusers at the earliest and a safe environment for the employees.