The head of Kathmandu Metropolitan City has promised a smooth and transparent service delivery from his office to service seekers.

KMC CEO Rudra Singh Tamang made the pledge amid reports that less than half of the service seekers are satisfied with services provided by the municipality.

Tamang’s 43-point pledge are mostly related to administration reforms, like putting in place an acting head while he is away from office, holding monthly meetings and publishing monthly income-expenditure report.

A recent KMC survey report showed that only 45.3 percent of service seekers were satisfied with KMC’s services, while a whopping 66.6 percent of respondents said they are kept in the dark regarding the metropolis’ project selection and implementation procedures.

Only 36 percent of service seekers are satisfied with KMC’s service regularity, the report says. Forty-four percent of respondents said they are not assured that they will receive the service they seek from the municipality. A majority of the people said that lack of information regarding the services, misplacement and disappearance of files are among the problems they face regularly while visiting the municipality office.

The KMC chief has assured that his office will launch investigations into complaints within three days of their registration and initiate action within 15 days. A complaints service officer will be hired for the purpose, he added.

The metropolis provides a host of services including issuing house construction permits, collecting taxes, registering births, deaths and marriages, collecting garbage, preparing documents for scholarships and recommending for citizenship certificates, to the citizens through its central office or 35 ward offices.

Tamang also assured that the KMC would operate mass transit public vehicles in the Capital, along with electric buses. Regulations for installing solar systems and using parking spaces in buildings will be enforced, the KMC chief said, adding that a number of public toilets would be built in the city. “I will develop Kathmandu as a modern metropolis,” Tamang claimed.

Commenting on Tamang’s pledge, former general administration minister Lalbabu Pandit said that public-friendly service delivery is essential to safeguard democracy in the country. Consumer rights activist Jyoti Baniya said KMC should have the capacity to check on irregularities in the city. “The metropolis should have the knowledge of how pharmacies are being operated outside hospitals,” he said, complaining about the lack of KMC’s presence inside Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market where consumers are cheated.

Pointing out the lack of coordination between officials, Executive Director of National Association of Village Development Committees in Nepal Parshuram Upadhyay stressed the need for elected local bodies. Chairman of Local Bodies Employees’ Union Gangadhar Gautam said that civil servants have been heading local bodies as per a regulation drafted in 1998 for transition period in the country. “But the transition period has continued for 16 years,” he said.

Meanwhile, the KMC is mulling over different measures to improve the timeliness and quality of its services. Officials say the metropolis will train its employees on Right to Information Act of 2008 which stipulates that programmes and projects of public bodies need to be communicated to people.

The KMC is also installing Municipal Administration and Revenue System (Mars) with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank. The system allows service seekers to apply for and receive any KMC service online, and have to come to the KMC only for payment purposes.

Service seekers have called for proper parking and waiting facilities in all ward offices, detailed information on citizens’ charter boards, extended working hours for paying public.