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Kathmandu Saturday November 10, 2001 Kartik 25, 2058.
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KMC’s explanation
It was heartwarming to read the explanation on
the TKP dated 5 November from the Kathmandu Municipality (KMC), to my letter on TKP on 30
October, for one fact that at least there is one establishment in today’s democratic
Nepal that cares enough to respond to people’s reactions. The letter can be accepted
more as explanation to their modus operandi for naming the streets but the question still
remains on the wisdom and intentions of changing the names of the age-old streets. The
response was more like explanation, and that too, for the benefit of the donor agencies to
extract mileage for the KMC, rather than winning the support of the public. It does not
take into account that a series of wrongs does not total to a right. The letter was
replete with justifications to the mistakes that had been committed rather than messages
of possible efforts to put them right.
Granted that the KMC had published all the
notices and held meetings (surely paid by taxpayers money) to decide the names of the
streets, the fact remains that names of the streets mentioned in my letter still has not
been named correctly. There may be many others too facing the same fate. Leaving aside the
fact that the concerned residents (I have contacted many and they deny ever being
contacted by KMC regarding the matter) of the related streets were not consulted in naming
the mentioned streets, even the efforts of the representative of the area is reported to
have been ignored because of his political attachment. If the Prasuti Marg is named for
the sake of the Maternity Hospital being there, should the Teku to Pachali (Bagmati) road
be called Masaan Marg, the road leading to Aryaghat in Pashupati called Mrityu Marg and
the Bir Hospital Road called Birami Path?
Today people are entitled to and are even
calling for the amendment of the Constitution. But our city fathers are exhibiting a
mentality of a line carved on a stone that cannot be corrected once the almighty act of
naming the streets with absurd names has been committed. But the reality is that the
people will not accept the ridiculous names and KMC will be well advised to wise up and
yield to the demands of the people and rename the objectionable names.
Jaya Dev Baidya
Thapathali, Kathmandu |
