Metro-office stinky despite 1200 cleaners

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
KATHMANDU: August 29

Despite some 1,200 sweepers and cleaners constantly at work, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is giving out foul smell. The office toilets are stinking and a heap of garbage is rotting nearby. The inside of the building is full of dampening old materials and the rooms are covered by a blanket of dust.

The floors and walls of the building are cracked and damaged, said engineer Suraj Shakya. "KMC looks like a heap of garbage than an office," he said.

"Sanitation standards of this civic body stands at a shameful low condition despite over-crowded cleaners," Shakya added.

Toilets are unrine-stained and the floors and walls are awashed with spotty patches probably of nicotine chewed and spitted.

"Toilets, in particular, stink so bad that it will be hardly possible to remain inside for a few minutes to pee," Shakya said.

The civic body, which falls under the national capital, is the only metropolis of the country."Of late it has been a mockery of the historic, cultural and wonderful heritage of Nepal," said Shakya.

Sources at KMC say, there are about 2,500 staff including some 1,200 sweepers and cleaners. And yet the office remains dirtier and its toilets constantly stinking for several months.

Saligram Rijal, under-secretary at the KMC, blamed on to the removal of their supervisor a few months ago. "We are in a process to appoint a new supervisor for the cleaners," he said.

As soon as the supervisor is appointed, the problems will be gone, said Rijal.

The KMC building, which was constructed during the reign of Ranas, was earlier used by the Ministry of Finance. It now wears a dilapidated look.