What kind of Kathmandu?

For Mayor Shah, crafting an eco-friendly and equitable melting pot of people and ideas is a more worthy goal to aspire to.

The city of Kathmandu is a lot cleaner than it was, say, a year ago. Mayor Balendra Shah has done a great job managing roadside garbage, removing dust particles from streets, and adding much-needed greenery to the concrete jungle. He has also started the process of removing loose wire, set up shelters for stray cattle and even started a facility to separate biodegradable waste from the non-degradable kind. The revamped image of Kathmandu is testament to the fact even a single person can bring meaningful change to people’s lives. That is the good part about Mayor Shah. Yet what we have seen during his year and a half in office is a tendency to “bulldoze” his way to development. To make the pavements pedestrian-friendly, Shah has often used force to clear away street vendors. The city police have upturned vegetable and chatpate carts, even as their owners begged for a smidgen of mercy. The city police have been as ruthless in their determination to remove riverside squatters.