E-Kantipur

JAN 08 - When Keshav Sthapit was elected the city’s last Mayor in July 1997, he quickly earned a reputation as a doer and go-getter. Despite strong opposition, he provided a visible makeover to the city and expanded its services. Overhead bridges were constructed at various places during his tenure, and the city’s major intersections such as Kalanki, Chabahil, Ratnapark, Tudhikhel Trichandra and Tripureshwor area were widened.

Sthapit singlehandedly bulldozed illegal constructions, most notably in the Maitighar and Kalanki area, and in preparation for the SAARC Summit in 1998, he led a team to construct the Maitighar Mandala. “I couldn’t have succeeded in constructing Maitighar Mandala or bulldozing illegal constructions and paving wider roads at Kalanki if people had not supported me,” says the former Mayor. 

The Mayor before Sthaphit, PL Singh (1992-1997), is most credited for taking steps to turn this small town into a bustling metropolis. He turned the then Kathmandu Municipality to a Metropolitan City in December 1995.

“It was during the time of P.L. Singh when the Kathmandu municipality was upgraded as Metropolitan City,” says Rabin Man Shrestha, Divisional Chief of the Environment Management Division. He had very good international networks, which helped KMC to receive world-wide recognition as an upcoming metropolis, fuelling donor interests in city’s development.

“The Asian Development Bank (ADB), JICA and number of other international organizations came forward in supporting the city then,” recalls Revenue Officer Kafle.

Singh also introduced the concept of 20-year planning-a visionary idea of planning infrastructure for the future.

Singh and Sthapit, by far, were the most popular Mayors of the Capital, and under their stewardship the city grew not just in numbers but the scope of its services expanded too.

But in the absence of a Mayor today, such services have stagnated. The site at Maitghar Mandala, which was once a beautiful landmark, is dilapidated and has been reduced to a place for protest and agitation. Sthaphit himself brags about how he pulled off the Mandala project in just four days.

Kathmandu’s population has grown to an estimated three million from about 700,000 in 2001, and in the absence of an elected body, the bureaucrats appointed have not done much by way of accommodating the needs of the increased population. While its population grows exponentially, a disparity in infrastructural development has started to affect the quality of life in the city.

Officials at the KMC admit that there hasn’t been any noticeable development since the exit of the last mayor. “Mayors are elected with public backing and are naturally more powerful than we appointees are,” says KMC Chief Ananda Raj Pokhrel.  “We have neither the government’s support nor the public’s.” Pokhrel complains about often being the scapegoat for both the politicians and the public.  He points out to the row over KMC’s plan to construct more overhead bridges which was initiated to ease  pedestrian crossings at busy intersections, but it came under both the CIAA and Parliament’s Public account Committee (PAC). The matter is now before the Supreme Court. “The story would have been much different if a Mayor had taken the decision,” says KMC Chief Pokhrel.

 The Local Bodies Autonomous Act empowers the Mayor as the sole authority. The Act further states that the Mayor has the power to structure the local body’s employees and provide service facilities. The Mayor is the one to design the yearly and long term plans and is even bestowed with “special power” to act during an emergency. The executive officer, who is an employee, lacks such power. S/he spends most of his/her time lobbying with the line ministry and minister.

“You can see the current state of KMC, the chief executive has failed to convene even the city council meeting to pass the budget,” says Kafle.

Worse, for the last two years, KMC failed to meet the Minimum Condition and Performance Requirements (MCPR) set by Local Bodies’ Finance Commission under Ministry of Local Development setting 13 MCPR indicators. Under Secretary at the Commission Yam Nath Sharma believes that the lack of elected representatives was the main reason behind the city’s consecutive failure. “The KMC couldn’t even hold city council meeting regularly and on time,” said Sharma. “The appointed chiefs are not accountable to public.”

Having run an election with specific development programmes and policies, a Mayor is unencumbered by the line ministry or minister in undertaking the city’s development projects. “I didn’t have to worry about being transferred or sacked before my tenure,” says Sthapit.

Lack of a public mandate and stable leadership are certainly the two reasons why the city’s infrastructure growth has come to a standstill. Kathmandu Metropolitan City

continues to be rudderless at a crucial time of change. A city with a rich cultural heritage and quality of life in the medieval period has started degenerated in the absence of proper stewardship. With rapid expansion of population pushing the availability of space and basic services to the limit, a strong, stable and elected leadership is essential for the city’s renewal and growth.

“There is only one solution to the city’s problem: local elections, local elections, and local elections,” says former Mayor PL Singh. “There can be no discussions about local development without an elected body. What we are seeing now at KMC is simply an enabling environment for both corruption and indecisiveness.”

 

Posted on: 2011-01-08 09:57

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