Forty-one out of the 42 executive members including Deputy Mayor Sunita Dangol of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), have urged Mayor Balendra Shah to convene a meeting of the city’s municipal executive without further delay.

During a gathering held on Sunday, elected representatives from various parties—including the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML, the CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN (Unified Socialist), and the Rastriya Swatantra Party—stood united to press the mayor for the meeting.

According to the Local Government Operation Act 2017, the executive meeting is mandated to take place at least once every month. However, the last meeting was held in December 2024, and the nearly six-month-long gap has caused uncertainty in policy-making and development planning within the metropolis.

“Without regular executive meetings, important decisions regarding infrastructure projects and policy matters have been delayed,” said KMC spokesperson Navin Manandhar. “There’s also a legal requirement to finalise and present the city’s budget for fiscal year 2025/26 by June 29, but that process hasn’t even begun.”

Members expressed concern that failure to hold the meeting could jeopardise the timely preparation of the annual budget, leaving city operations in limbo.

“Since the mayor alone holds the authority to call and chair the executive meetings, the delay has raised serious governance concerns,” Manandhar added.

As the budget deadline nears, pressure is mounting on Mayor Shah to break the deadlock and allow the executive to function as mandated by law.