Kathmandu District Court removes two big vehicles from the footpath in front of it
A bus and truck were parked next to the gate of the court covering the walkway for two years, causing inconvenience to pedestrians. Photo Courtesy: Bikash Karki
After widespread criticism from the public and media coverage, the Kathmandu District Court on Monday nightremoved the two big vehicles that were parked on the footpath in front of it, creating inconvenience to the public.
A bus and a truck which were impounded for carrying the contraband and goods evading taxes were parked in front of the court for over two years.
“Yes, we removed the vehicles yesterday night as they were causing trouble to pedestrians,” said Deepak Dahal, an information officer at the Kathmandu District Court.
“Earlier also we tried to remove those vehicles but due to lack of our own spaces we could not,” added Dahal.
He said those vehicles were removed with the help of the Nepal police and they have been kept on the premises of the Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu.
On Monday night, Bikash Kari, a photojournalist, posted a photo of the bus being towed from in front of the court on Twitter.
Last month the Post reported about the two vehicles covering half of the walkway in front of the Kathmandu District Court.
The Kathmandu District Court falls in Ward 11 of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
Ward chair Hira Lal Tandukar who had long been pressing the court to remove those vehicles said he learned that the vehicles were removed only on Tuesday.
“I knew about the issue on Tuesday only,” said Tandukar. He said that the court removed only after it got a letter from the Kathmandu Metropolitan City seeking its building’s site plan clearance.
Last week, the Building Construction Department of the KMC, had sent a letter to the district court seeking documents of building construction clearance documents.
Suraj Shakya, chief of the Building Construction Department, said last week the City had not received the documents from the court.
Over the past week, Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah has been carrying out a demolition drive to clear illegally built structures and force business complexes to comply with the law.
Not only private properties that have been Shah’s target, on Friday he ordered clearing of the basement of the Department of Passport, a government building, as it was being used as the “holding centre” for service seekers instead of parking for which it was designed.
“Media coverage and public pressure seem to have forced the court to remove the vehicles,” said Tandukar.
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