Waste management centre in Kanchanpur padlocked, garbage disposal halted

Kanchanpur, Aug 23: The Garbage collection and disposal in Shuklaphanta municipality-11 in Kanchanpur district has been disrupted for three days now after the Shree Krishna Community Forest User Group padlocked the Waste Management Centre's office. 

The Group, demanding an implementation of the 11-point agreement, locked up the office of the Centre halting the garbage collection process. 

This has led to heaps of wastage mounting in Jhalari, forest users committee and market areas at Kaluwapur among others. 

The Municipality has been temporarily dumping trashes in the land of the community forest since the Centre is not fully operational yet. 

The garbage disposal centre was built at over Rs 300 million under the concessional loan provided by the Asian Development Bank. The centre can process up to 6 tonnes of wastage daily for the next 20 years. 

An 11-point agreement was inked between the Municipality and the Users' Group during the construction of the centre which, User Group's Chairperson Ambar Bahadur Ayre, said is far from implementation. 

The two sides had agreed that no dumping of garbage from another areas will take place in the current site, to carrying out fencing the site, providing LPG gas cylinder to every member of the Group, constructing embankment at Banhara and Sanbora river and providing jobs to local residents among others.

The Municipality had also agreed to blacktop the roads and install electricity facility in the human settlements affected by the disposal site, organize Aryaghat areas, arrange dustbins and roll out insurance scheme, provide free medical treatment to the affected ones and return the land after use.

"Three years have elapsed since the agreement but it is not implemented yet," lamented Ayre, expressing his displeasure over the inaction of the Municipality to bring the agreement into effect.

Former secretary of the Group, Dil Bahadur Saud, further accused the Municipality authorities for turning blind eye to the issue and not taking any lead for talks to resolve it.

He warned of further protests if their demands are not addressed. (RSS)