After the Supreme Court issued an interim order to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City to immediately remove the uncollected garbage from Singha Durbar and two other VIP addresses on Friday, the City has resumed garbage collection from Monday.

Friday’s interim order was issued by a single bench of justice Prakashman Singh Raut in response to a writ petition filed by advocate Padam Bahadur Shrestha.

In its decision, the Supreme Court had asked the KMC to collect garbage within three days from Singh Durbar, President’s office, and Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar.

Following the order, the City has started picking garbage from the three places after a gap of 15 days.

Mayor Balendra Shah had stopped collecting garbage from the government’s central secretariat Singha Durbar and the official residences of the prime minister and the President since April 9 accusing the federal government of not cooperating in the former’s effort to remove squatter settlements from Kathmandu’s riverbanks.

Shah announced his decision on social media saying his move was a protest against the “neglect, lack of responsibility and carelessness shown by the federal government” to KMC’s concerns.

Article 30 of Nepal’s Constitution has listed the ‘right to clean environment’ as one of the fundamental rights. It says every citizen shall have the right to live in a clean and healthy environment.

Likewise, section 2 of the Solid Waste Management Act-2011 states that it is the responsibility of the local government to manage solid waste.