Khadgi-Shakya rift: KMC deputy mayor tells mayor to resign

KATHMANDU, April 28: Kathmandu Metropolitan City Deputy Mayor Hari Prabha Khadgi has told Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya to resign for the post saying that the metropolitan office could not work efficiently because of the passiveness of the mayor.

Her remarks come after mayor Shakya blamed the deputy mayor of not following his orders to carry out inspection works as soon as the metropolitan office knew the illegal shutters were being built in the public land.

Following the public pressure, the KMC bulldozed the 52 structures illegally built on public land at Khulla Manch on Saturday.

Both deputy mayor and mayor have blamed each other for the chaos at Khulla Manch that took away the income pot of about 50 shopkeepers who each had paid builders more than Rs 1 million to rent the space and had invested more than Rs 500,000 to buy the stocks they were selling.

According to Republica, Shakya had asked Khadgi to inspect the encroached public land in Khulla Manch on Friday. Khadgi was expected to submit the report on Sunday. But Shakya took the decision to demolish the structures a day before without first reviewing the deputy mayor’s report.

However, Khadgi shrugged off that she had not been given any responsibility to inspect the illegal structures at Khulla Manch.

“The illegal shutters were demolished following the order of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli. But, Mayor Shakya is taking the credit for himself putting false accusations on me,” Khadgi told Rishi Dhamala at a television talk show Janata Janna Chahanchan.

“The mayor never handed me the job. It is because of mayor’s indifference the chaos at Khulla Manch occurred,” she said.

“He should resign from the post,” she added.

Earlier, Shakya, on the same talk show, had told Dhamala that if Khadgi had carried out inspection works properly, the land at Khulla Manch would never have encroached.

This is not the first time the mayor and the deputy mayor at loggerheads. They were also at odds over the design of the reconstruction of ancient heritage site Rani Pokhari.