By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Sept. 12: Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) on Friday demanded a complete restriction on the operation of street shops that resumed from Thursday in Kathmandu.
A delegation led by Deputy Mayor Hari Prabha Khadgi reached the Katmandu District Administration Office (DAO) on Friday to meet Chief District Officer Janak Raj Dahal and asked for rethinking the order given to open footpath and cart shops in the capital city.
A meeting of the District Administration Offices of the Kathmandu Valley held on Wednesday had decided to open the street shops while continuing the lockdown order till September 16.
According to the decision No. 10 of the 19 decisions taken on Wednesday, footpath and cart shops were given permission to open and do businesses till 11:00 am in the morning and from 4:00pm to 7:00pm in the evening.
Deputy Mayor Khadgi asked CDO Dahal that the coronavirus containment programme of the KMC and the government would become further challenging if such businesses were permitted to operate.
The KMC through its fiscal plan and programmes had even decided to put a complete ban in doing such business in the footpath of Kathmandu and the latest permission given by the DAOs was against the norms of the KMC, she said.
Contact tracing of possible coronavirus infected people would be more challenging if vendors are allowed sell their wares in the streets, Ishwar Man Dangol, spokesperson at KMC, quoted Deputy Mayor Khadgi as saying.
Monitoring part of such shops would become more difficult, she said.
Meanwhile, some of the ward offices of Kathmandu have issued notices prohibiting footpath and cart shops from running their businesses in their ward areas.
Accepting the attention letter of KMC, CDO Dahal said the decision was taken through the joint meeting of the DAOs and taking permission from the Home Ministry.
CDO Dahal said the decision was taken favouring the low income people and families who were on the verge of starving in Kathmandu and other two districts of the valley.
He said that attention of the DAO, Kathmandu, was drawn towards the issue, and the DAO would take this issue to the meeting of District COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre (DCCMC) to do the needful.