KATHMANDU: Local governments in Kathmandu district are striving hard to curb the coronavirus transmission.
Besides Kathmandu Metropolitan City, there are 10 municipalities in Kathmandu: Tarakeshwor, Nagarjun, Tokha, Budhanilkantha, Gokarneshwor, Kageshwori Manohara, Shankharapur, Kirtipur, Chandragiri and Dakshinkali.
People wonder what might these municipalities doing during the lockdown caused by the coronavirus, Khabarhub tried to find out how the municipalities are busying these days.
As preventive measures to stop the coronavirus, they are spraying disinfectant liquid in their areas. They have arranged for the quarantine centers in their area.
As the convenient local governments for the public, they are collecting data about the daily wage earners impacted badly by the lockdown. Some of them have started distributing relief materials to such communities.
According to Mayor Rameshwor Bohara, Tarakeshwor Municipality has been providing health services from all 11 health stations established in each ward of the municipalities. “All health stations of 11 wards are functioning at their best,” he said to Khabarhub, “We have provided Personal Protection Equipment(PPE) and other health materials to them.”
According to him Tarakeshwor has made 13-bed quarantine and is planning to expand it to 25 beds.
“We have been spraying disinfectant in different areas,” he added, “we are collecting details about the daily wage earners in the area and plan to distribute food and most essentials goods for survival to them from today.”
Nagarjuna Municipality did not feel the scarcity of health materials as it procured them on time.
Nagarjuna’s Mayor claimed that the medics and people’s representatives were given the health materials prior to lockdown so there is nothing to bother about it.
Gokarneshwor Municipality’s mayor also said that they have been spraying disinfectant in most of the vulnerable areas.
“I have been visiting in the quarantine center and health stations to find out how everything is going on,” Raju Rana Magar, the Ward Chairperson of Gokerneshwor 5 said, “ we have collected the list of the labors living on daily earning and are supporting them.”
Mayor Chalise has set up a hotline to listen to the grievances and has been handling the complaints very sincerely.
Budhanilkantha Municipality which has 13 wards has set up a health desk in 7 places. Mayor Uddhav Prasad Kharel informed us that the municipality has been spraying disinfectant quite frequently. “We are fully mobilized to make the lockdown effective,” he said, “We are planning to distribute relief materials to the neediest from Thursday onwards.”
The municipality has been collecting details of the daily wage earners for a week and has found that there are around 10000 people to get relief materials.
Dakshinkali Municipality has arranged for a 5-bed quarantine spot. There are 9 Wards in the municipality.
Mayor Mohan Basnet informed that the municipality has set up a health desk at Pharping, the entry-point to the capital city.
“Nepal Army, Nepal Police and the health workers are busy in screening the health of the people who arrive at Pharping,” Basnet said, “ we have been distributing relief materials to the needy.”
Krishna Hari Thapa, the mayor of Kageshwori Manohara told that his municipality has traced the foreign returnees. “56 returnees are living in self-quarantine in their houses,” Mayor Thapa said, “we have been distributing relief items to the needy ones living in the municipality.”
Kageshwori Municipality has 5 health centers, 3 urban health centers, and a 60-bed quarantine spot. The municipality has 9 Wards in it.
“ We started distributing relief materials from Apr 2,” Thapa said, “we distributed coupon for relief on the basis of the data collected in 2019 and the first round of distribution is nearly complete.’
Mayor Thapa informed Khabarhub that the municipality has distributed the relief materials worth 7 million rupees.
Tokha Municipality has 38-bed quarantine. According to Deputy Mayor Gyan Maya Dangol, the Municipality has collected details about the daily wage earners in the Municipality and each ward is busy distributing the relief materials.
“Ward No. 5 distributed relief materials to 150 people Tuesday,” Dangol said, “Ward No. 11 and 6 distributed it on Wednesday, others are distributing today and tomorrow.”
She told Khabarhub that the distribution of relief materials for 15 days has cost nearly 10 million rupees.
Shankharapur Municipality has focused on identifying the needy and distributing relief materials to them.
According to Mayor Subarna Shrestha, the people’s representatives are busy tracing the returnees from abroad and making a list of the needy people as well. Lockdown is relatively less strict for two hours both in the morning and the evening. “ We have made the provision of letting the people go out to bring the foods and supplies for day to day consumption,” Mayor Shrestha said.
In this municipality of 30,000 people, there are 18 recent returnees. The last to come back in the country had returned nearly 1 month before and none is infected of corona here to date.
However, Shrestha was upset at not getting PPE and thermal gun the most essential health kits for the health workers.
Kirtipur Municipality has prepared a PPE set on its own and distributed it to the health-workers. Taking technical help from the municipality local garment factory produced 30 set PPE for the municipality.
Chandragiri Municipality has told that it has arranged for the quarantine bed and isolation bed as per necessity.
‘Haves’ surpass ‘have not’ in relief seekers’ queue
After the government announcement about providing relief packages to the daily wage earners and the poor, the Ward offices of local governments are often crowded with the relief seekers.
Some of the Ward offices of Kathmandu Metropolitan City have even started a joint mess for the daily wage earners.
Ward 14 of Kathmandu Metropolitan City has launched a mess at Kuleshwor for nearly 300-400 daily wage earners. The ward has made 5 clusters to distribute the relief package. “In the first round we distributed relief package to 1000 people, for the second phase we are tallying the list to ensure the right ones get the relief; we will be distributing the relief from 5 different clusters,” Shova Sapkota, the Ward Chairperson, working morning to evening in the relief work said.
The most challenging task for the relief distributors in densely populated areas of Kathmandu is to identify the needy ones.
The relief package is expected to suffice for two weeks. For the family of more than 2, the package includes one sack full of rice, 2 liters of cooking oil, 3 kgs dal, and 4 soaps.
Most of the people’s representatives are worried at the sight of rich people in the list of relief seekers. “We are working to ensure that the relief meant for the poor and daily wage earners does not fall in wrong hands,” Budhanilkantha’s Mayor Kharel shared his difficulty, “honesty and humanity matter a lot in such situation; so we request those who can afford not to queue for the relief as a priority should go to save lives.”
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