Before the recent local level polls, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) had been without elected representatives since 2002. So it is no surprise that people have great expectations of the newly elected mayor, deputy mayor, ward chairpersons and other members of the KMC. As Deputy Mayor Hari Prabha Khadki said during the oath taking ceremony last month, “Now we have the weight of all the 32 wards on our shoulders and are committed to making Kathmandu a city known for its temples, cultures and economic transformation”. 

We can only hope that the elected representatives are as good as their word. Initiatives taken so far by the KMC indicate that they do want to make a departure from the general Nepali tradition of politicians making hollow pledges. The second joint meeting of the executive body of the newly elected representatives this week approved a budget of Rs 2.25 million to each ward in the metropolis for infrastructure development. The budget will cover maintenance of roads and sidewalks, laying of bricks and stones, sewage and drainage management and other miscellaneous expenses. 

The KMC executive body is on the right track. It has said it will build around 300 public toilets within the Ring Road area in three months. The 10 public toilets in the Capital now are hardly enough to accommodate the needs of a rapidly growing population. In addition to paying attention to infrastructure development, the KMC also seems to have recognised the linguistic and cultural aspirations of the Valley’s indigenous population. The municipal executive body is planning to set up a separate desk for providing services in Nepal Bhasa in a bid to help preserve the language and make communication easier for service seekers who are more comfortable in Newari than in Nepali. For a multilingual society like ours, this is indeed a positive step. 

Of course, it is not going to be all smooth sailing for the KMC. This week, its executive body made a controversial decision to prohibit additional taxis within the metropolis in conflict with the government’s decision to distribute 1,500 taxi permits to earthquake victims. The Department of Transport Management maintains that the decision to distribute the permits was made two years ago and it is now too late to stop taxis with the new operation permits from running within Kathmandu. The KMC’s stance, however, is that the metropolis has neither the plan nor the space to accommodate additional taxis. And one only has to walk down the streets to realise that this assertion is, indeed, correct. The government and the KMC will have to find a viable solution to this quandary.

Minor hitches notwithstanding, so far the newly elected representatives have given the public good reason for optimism. But these are still early days and it remains to be seen how different they will be from their predecessors.