Ditch the hammer, Balen

The goal is to balance the interests of those involved in these informal trade with pedestrian comfort.

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has been aggressively pursuing a drive to remove roadside businesses and street vendors. Managing road traffic and walkways in a city that packs in over a million people is definitely a daunting task, and it is upon the municipality to make the city livable and navigable. This is why the clean-up initiatives of the new mayor of Kathmandu city Balendra Shah were initially applauded. But some of his recent actions have also come under withering criticism. The municipality was widely criticised for the way municipal police terrorised roadside businesses. The goods of many were seized and the sellers chased away. The heart-rending photos and images of a wailing Sharmila Tamang, a roadside vendor whose cart had been seized by the city police, became emblematic of this mayoral drive. Inadvertently, many who had pinned high hopes on Shah to better manage Kathmandu now started doubting his intent. How could he be so cruel, they asked?