KMC intensifies its drive to remove Hoarding Boards

Kathmandu / Dec. 27: Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has intensified its drive to remove hoarding boards put up in different parts of the city by breaching the rule. The KMC Friday expedited its action as per the direction from the Minister for Home Affairs.

A meeting presided over by Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa (Badal) on Thursday directed the city authority to remove the haphazardly kept hoarding boards, posters, wires that have degraded the beauty of the city.

As directed by the Home Minister, the KMC intensified its drive to remove the hoarding boards which have given a disserted look to the capital city.

On Friday alone, the city authority removed large hoarding boards, pamphlets and posters from Babarmahal, Tinkune and Kalimati areas, said, Chief of the City Police Division, Deputy Superintendent of Police Dhanapati Sapkota.

Kathmandu is a cultural, religious and tourist destination and it was the responsibility of the city authority to maintain beauty of this ancient city, said Sapkota.

“We have been working on this issue since a long time,” said Sapkota, adding that considering the Visit Nepal Year 2020, we had intensified the drive.

The KMC was committed to fully implementing the action plan which was formulated in 2013 to regulate the advertisement materials.

The KMC will remove wall paintings, electric poles, posters and banners, including advertisement hoarding boards from the public places.

A public notice will be issued to remove the unmanaged telephone, cable, and internet wires by giving a deadline to the service providers to remove them.

The meeting has also decided to cut the wires and remove them if the service providers do not remove them within the given deadline.

Around four years ago, a divisional bench of the then chief justice Kalyan Shrestha and justice Om Prakash Mishra had issued an order to remove the posters, pamphlets and wall painting from house, wall, roof, electric poles and road dividers and take preventive measures to not allow the re-use.

Advocate Padma Bahadur Shrestha had filed a writ petition demanding action on contempt of court for not complying with the Supreme Court order for four years.