Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has formed an inspection committee led by Deputy Mayor Hari Prabha Khagdi, almost 19 months after the election of new representatives.

Khadgi admitted to the Post the long delay in establishing the committee. “KMC should have established the committee earlier, but due to our own internal problems, we could not do it,” she said.

“The committee will do surveillance of all the activities carried by the metropolis from development works to market activities.”

The committee will start its surveillance from Ward 6 on December 21, said Khadgi.

The five-member committee comprises Ward-14 Chairperson Sobha Sapkota, lawmaker Hira Devi Pokharel, Joint Secretary Tok Raj Pandey and Physical Infrastructure chief of metropolis Narayan Babu Bhattrai will be monitoring the development activities of all the 32 wards of the KMC.

The Local Governance Act 2074 has a provision that requires the Deputy Mayor

to manage the inspection committee.

The committee is responsible for the enforcement and regulation of property tax, house rent tax, house registration fee, vehicle tax, inspection for safe human settlement policies, devising programmes, expansion and promotion of grounds for local revenue including surveillance of routine activities and markets.

“The metropolis has allocated Rs 30 million for larger wards and 25 million for smaller wards to carry out development work. We will also monitor how the fund is being used,” said Khadgi.

There was a public outcry since long over the KMC’s failure to form the inspection committee.

The committee held its first meeting on Thursday. It has announced inspection tasks with the support of Chief District Office.

Ward Chairperson Sapkota said, “We plan to work in a manner that people can see the change. We started collecting data from households, schools, hospitals, colleges, NGO, business houses to Paan Pasal. Now it is time for action.”