Balen’s demolition drive

 The Himalayan Times

2 September 2022

Balen’s demolition drive

Nepal has experienced many political changes in the last seven decades. It has seen many political leaders making rosy promises to the public especially in the last three decades; however, they have completely failed to fulfill their promises. Most of them are still around and leading the major political parties along with their second-rung leaders, who seem to be wrongly spoon-feeding their bosses, around them. Unfortunately, they have pushed the nation towards unstable political situation and made it a playground for the foreign powers for this and that reasons, especially in the recent years, owing to their irresponsible and anti-nationalist political acts just for clinging to the power. What a shame is on them. EARN MONEY JUST BY CLICKING ADS.

The recent local level election in some of the metropolitan cities showed unexpected results which was a heavy political blow to the major political party's candidates. Among them was the defeat of UML candidate Keshav Sthapit and five-party alliance candidate Srijana Singh by an independent candidate, Balendra Shah, in Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) with a majority vote. That result had indicated that the voters wanted to see and try with an independent candidate rather than going along with the same old political face, whose past performance, as a Mayer, was not to the satisfaction of the Kathmandu voters.

In the recent days, Mayor Balen seems to be determined to fulfil his promises made to his voters by going into action.He has started bull-dozing the illegally constructed buildings and vacating basements designed for underground parking in the KMC with his demolition squads "Demolition of illegally constructed buildings: A step in the right direction" (THT, August 30, Page 4). Everybody has welcomed his present move and is wishing him success in his mission of making KMC, a heavenly city. Had the previous KMC mayors of major political parties performed well with good intention and as responsible authority, no independent candidate would be dared to challenge their candidates. To me, Balen like independent candidate can be a serious threat for the major parties for the upcoming provincial and federal elections, if they continue to cheat their voters the way they did in the past or can be an opportunity for them if they timely realise their past political blunders and start working like him.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharajgunj