Valley
Kathmandu District Administration asks the public not to hold rallies and demonstrations
The notice comes a day after a pro-monarchy, anti-federalism rally in the Capital.Post Report
Kathmandu District Administration has issued a notice making an appeal to the public not to organise gatherings, rallies and demonstrations.
The notice was issued on Tuesday morning. The district administration’s notice comes a day after pro-monarchy and pro-Hindu forces took out a rally in Kathmandu demanding reinstatement of the constitutional monarchy and Nepal as a Hindu state and scrapping of federalism.
The administration’s notice, however, has said the notice to the public to not hold rallies and gatherings has been issued in light of rising Covid-19 cases and risk of transmission.
“We have received information about gatherings, rallies, demonstrations and campaigns being held at different parts of the district lately. Since such activities would raise the risk of infection and also are against the existing laws, the District Administration Office requests everyone not to be involved in crowd-related activities,” states the notice. “Anyone found violating the law will be punished as per the Local Administration Act 2028 and Infectious Disease Control Act 2020.”
Kali Prasad Rijal, chief district officer of Kathmandu, said the notice was issued after people started organising rallies violating the health protocol.
“We were not informed about the rally held yesterday. People should realise the risk involved. We issued the notice after people started holding demonstrations,” Rijal told the Post. “Now we will control such activities as per the existing laws.”
Around three months ago, the government had decided to impose a ban on gatherings of more than 25 people and authorized the local administration offices to halt different services by assessing the situation in the respective districts.
“It was the duty of concerned district authorities to control the gatherings as Kathmandu Valley has almost half of the total cases across the country,” said Chakra Bahadur Budha, spokesperson for the Home Ministry.
As of Monday, Nepal reported 233,452 Covid-19 cases across the country, with 1,508 deaths. The number of confirmed cases in the Valley stood at 109,126.
Kathmandu district alone has reported 87,893 cases with 375 deaths.
According to Budha, the ministry had issued a circular to all district administration offices throughout the country to implement the decision on not allowing mass gatherings and demonstrations and taking measures after assessing the situation.
“I don’t know why the authorities did not stop [yesterday’s] demonstrations,” Buddha told the Post.