The Kathmandu Metropolitan City on Friday said a ban on collecting and storing scrap materials in residential areas has been enforced owing to growing safety risks and mounting complaints from residents.

During a press meet, the metropolitan police said that the municipal assembly’s decision to restrict scrap dealers to non-residential zones and remove them from residential neighbourhoods has now been enforced.

Rajunath Pandey, chief of the Metropolitan Police, stated that scrap dealers operating out of makeshift structures violating city regulations had to be forcibly removed after failing to comply with repeated warnings.

He said that during efforts to warn these dealers to cease operations, there were instances of resistance and even attacks on law enforcement officers. Pandey said that measures are being taken to address such incidents.

“One of our officers was injured when scrap dealers attacked the police while we were issuing warnings,” Pandey said. “We are implementing the Kathmandu Metropolitan City assembly’s directive to allow scrap businesses to operate only in designated non-residential areas and to eliminate their presence in residential zones.”

Pandey further said that some scrap businesses continue to defy the KMC’s orders. He warned that if the obstruction persists, the metropolitan police will have no choice but to deploy bulldozers to clear the scrap materials.