| Username |
Post |
| Biswo |
Posted
on 27-Jan-02 06:37 PM
Except for the fact that he got mandate of Kathmanduites, I had very few reason
to respect Keshav Sthapit until a few months ago.
But Mr Sthapit seems to be a lot more hardworking and vibrant guy than ,well,
most of his predecessors. I like the way he is raising funds, and thinking very
highly about making Kathmandu a real 'clean, green and healthy' metropolis.
I liked the fact that he is trying to make the city' bike-friendly', and is intent on
making the city beautiful.
Of course, facts about beauty and refinement sound too unseemly in our cash-
strapped country now. But Mr Sthapit deserves kudos.
In deed, some months ago I was thinking about the mayors of Nepal who belonged
to CPN(ML). (Surprisingly, there are aplenty!) Given the way ML was routed in
last election, hope of being reelected in next election for these mayors are very
minimum. So, they got nothing to lose anyway, and should work hard to make
their cities better.
I think the way Mr Sthapit is working these days,he probably deserves another
term.
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| Makardhoj |
Posted
on 27-Jan-02 07:17 PM
Bishwo,
Kaha padheu tyasto ramro kaam garya kura? Link deu na yaha.
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| Taat |
Posted
on 28-Jan-02 01:16 PM
If its your first time to talk to Mayor Staphit he will blow you away with what he will do or what he would like to do. His well-wishers and rivals both think "hawako plane udaucha yaar yasle". However, he has tried very hard I say very hard. Once he tried to collect Municipality tax at the airport, since this created a havoc for the Finance Minster, Home Minister and their Mafia friends, they were thrown out.
I know one thing he has been trying to do is collect tax or find an income source for the Ktm. New home-tax is a proposal but I do not believe that it will work that well, people will be fleeing Kathmandu and living in Bhaktapur or Banepa or Dhulikhel. 10% Tax per year on a 1 crore home is 10 lakhs- I think it is too much for him to ask from the Kathmanduites. Funny thing is, Mr. Staphit himselfs has 2-3 commercial buildings in Kathmandu. You know the one in Bag Bazaar which (used to) reside Kathmandu Nursing Home (?) is his.
If he really does this, I will be darned.
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 28-Jan-02 02:21 PM
Makardhojji:
Actually, there is no single link for this purpose. I was just trying to solicit opinions
after gleaning some facts about recent KMC initiatives.
Taatji:
I was also impressed by his plan to raise almost a billion rupees from house tax
alone, but I didn't read the taxation in detail. Whatever, it is not wrong to raise
tax from people to use it for betterment of society. I don't know Keshav Sthapit
personally, never talked to him, nor do I support his party. But, hey this guy
looks like some body who wants to do something. He is a lot better than Prem Lal
Singhji who just didn't do anything.
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| mms |
Posted
on 28-Jan-02 04:09 PM
I couldn't agree more with Biswo about the Mayor Sthapit. He is doing all he can do to make Kathmandu clean and beautiful. He not only HAS many wonderful plans, but is TRYING and DOING all he can to make them a reality. Unfortunately, municipaliites do not have enough authority and he have to heavily rely on the support from the government, which he claims is not the case. He says that the extra-ordinary work that has been done during SAARC was possible because of the unprecendented support from the government. If municipality would have power like NY (not the resources, only authority), we would have our own Giuliani.
However, the integrity of Sthapit is certainly questionable. Everybody knows about his infamous friendship with Tibdewala (LC Kanda). But in Nepal, we are in a situation where we have to praise a politician who DOES SOMETHING, even though his/her integrity is questionable. As the majority of politicians are corrupt and do not yield any positive output for the country. In this way, atleast Sthapit is much better as he is really doing SOMETHING for our beloved KATHMANDU.
I am definitely not a support of the party he belongs to. But i guess, we should praise the good work, even if it is from the opposition. The oppurtinity to praise somebody has become so rare in Nepal, so we should grab every oppurtunity even if it is from the opposition.
Thanks
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| !@0 |
Posted
on 29-Jan-02 03:43 PM
Recently I was in Kathmandu after 6 years and found it to be in a path of modernization. Streets are wider around Tudikhel, lots of traffic ilands are maintained, city much cleaner than PL Sing's period. I don't see pile of garbage in the street but not yet like Germans cleaning our street. Lots of new roads are under construction along the Bishnumati river. I see lots of constructions going on around may be these are projects of minucipalities. I don't see such construction in Patan and Bhaktapur. I can see and feel that effort to make changes are there. I think if this mayor is given one more term he will change the city to something better.
Only thing I disagree with this mayor is his party behind "CPN-ML".
I found Kathmandu is much more populated may be 5 times since I left. May be the population inflow in Kathmandu is due to security reason.
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| 13-thum |
Posted
on 30-Jan-02 04:58 PM
Compare the thread of this site and Govinda Raj Joshi site. Apparently, people find it more interesting to criticise the bad guy but do not want to praise the good guy. Hey Guys, if you want to punish the bad one, you have to prize the good one as well.
Any response from the guys who are living in KTM currently.
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 30-Jan-02 10:17 PM
13-Thumji:
May be people still want to watch Mr Sthapit, and I see no wrong in that. We can't
rush to judge someone , anyway. However, I think Mr Sthapit deserves another
term. Let's see how he will do next time!
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| well done |
Posted
on 31-Jan-02 12:50 PM
He definately lift the face of Kathmandu. I think he got all the support from kathmanduors who were desperate to improve their city. He deserves one more term. !
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| HahooGuru |
Posted
on 31-Jan-02 05:49 PM
Biswo ji wrote:
But Mr Sthapit seems to be a lot more hardworking and vibrant guy than ,well,
most of his predecessors. I like the way he is raising funds, and thinking very
highly about making Kathmandu a real 'clean, green and healthy' metropolis.
I liked the fact that he is trying to make the city' bike-friendly', and is intent on
making the city beautiful.
----
As it is clear that the immediate former Mayor of KTM did work
hard to get/arrange the fund from ADB and other places,
he lost the election. Well, Mr. Sthapit won the election, and
after winning the election he did very hard "NOT in raising
the money, but, using the load/aid made ready by his
former Mayor", in using it for the betterment of KTM, for
that he needs to be get hat off salute. He deserves it.
His action against SAJHA.Building infront of Mahankal
sthan (?) is what many peoples admire. Well, if Ram had
cynic peoples, Sthapit too had. Many opponent do say
he looked worked very hard, because the money or
loan from ADB was so much that he smelled money
and to get back door share, he seemingly worked
hard. Whatever cynics say, I have +ve respect on him.
His success is yet measure for next term, his
next term will pass through difficult time if can not
get funds ready for next term, his win in next term
will dismiss him as successful , but, just using the
funds created by his former Mayor. So, the chain
should continue if he has to be successful all the
time. Lets hope he can do that. Being Mayor from
the minority party that has no lower house MPs,
he must be having tremendus pressure, but, lets
hope he continue to develop KTM to new KTM.
He should specially, try to open following bottle
neck in KTM valley:
1. Widen Road west of Raj Durbar: take some unused
land inside Keshar Mahal.
2. Move ASCOL Hostel out of town and widen the road,
near ascol hostel , starting from rajdurbar ko west
north corner to sorhakhutte, and connect it to the
one which was under widening from Sorha khuttte
to Tahachal. So, that there is express outbound
route on north west corner of KTM city, just the
way the wide road from Babar Mahal penetrates
to Airport south and let all outbound traffic exit
without problem.
3. Try to negotiate with royal Nepal Army, and
get the road connected from Bhadrakali to
Maiti ghar directly, not via singhdurbar. May be
the land in Tudikhel ko south section be offered in
replacement to the road connection and freeing
the land. If you can widen this section, there will
be open flow in peak hour.
4. Widen the road from Naxal to Gousala, long term
plan. Long term plan should be there. Like 50year
plan, I mean don't let transfer the land to others
rather buy the piece when someone wants to sell
it along the road, but, don't put pressure to deliver
the land to KTM city by force. So, that the road
will keep on widening as new buyers come and go.
In 50years, KTM city can purchase such widening
road land one by one, rather than funneling right at
this moment. They can have such plan along Ratna Park
Baneswor route too. What I mean was, suppose you
are thinking of 4 lane road from Naxal to Gousala
or Kamal Pokhari to gousala via Gyaneswor, then,
you can keep on buying the 3.5m(1lane)+1.5m(foot
path) from those who buy the land from current
owner at the same price as they show it RAJINAMA
during KINBECH. Over-invoicing will be another
trick for getting KTM Municipility's money to
the new owner's pocket and shared by the officers
in KTM Municipiality. To avoid this problem, they
can make a rule that the city will pay the amt.
to the old owner directly for the part they are
purchasing it, and the rate will be based on the
total amount declared in past few years' TAX
payment. The land + house valued in TAX
office. In this way, the old owners are forced to
valuate their property neither more nor less
because they have to pay TAX until before getting
MUABZA from City office. Create such dilemma
to those who want to cheat the city office using
the loophole.
But, such project if goes well
as I think, our grandkids will have four better roads that connect
to current ring road and our friends here in Sajah.com who
has chakrapath.com will become billionnaire while
celebrating his Chourashi ko puja (84th BD).
Do we have guts to think so far?
5. Switch ASCOL from intermediate majority student to
Graduate college and move it to out of town: outside
the chakrapath. Buy the land outside Chakrapath and
repalce the college for ISc students and make it college for BSc
and Msc students, so that the street vandalism is reduced.
But, our mayors love street vandalism because they became
heros and political leaders not because they had some
education in Law and Politics, but, they had learn and used
Dhunga Mudha ko Politics and Street Vandalism is the main
yard stick in Nepali Political Arena. So, this dream of mine
will remain unchallenged.
HahooGuru
|
| Taat |
Posted
on 05-Feb-02 07:16 AM
Ma Chanchune Mayor Hoina!
http://www.kantipuronline.com/Nepal/Out_of_frem.htm
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| good Job |
Posted
on 05-Feb-02 01:04 PM
This mayor is dedicated to build KTM.
Recently they have a plan to build road from Mankal sthan to Purano Bus park.
|
| kumar |
Posted
on 05-Feb-02 01:34 PM
Kudos to any elected official in Nepal who makes our country a better place to live. Politicians are dirty everywhere. Soft money in US, Bofors in India, Mafioso in Russia, etc etc But anyone who makes an effort to bring in a change is more than welcome. ACTIONS ALWAYS SPEAK BETTER THAN WORDS.
We have a wholelotta people than can talk the talk but very very few who are willling to walk that talk. We need more poeple like him.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 05-Feb-02 07:15 PM
It has long been a mystery to me why or how KS -- with all his energy, drive, ambition, entreprenurial ideas, faith in the private sector and result-getting
public activities -- is a Marxist-Leninist.
By tempermant, he's closer to Mr. Smith than to either Mr. Marx or to Mr. Lenin.
But because of politics, he has to toe the party-line of Bamdev Gautam. Then again, perhaps, as Chna's Deng Xiaping once said: The color of the cat is of no importance as long as it catches mice. And KS is catching mice, so to speak.
A few years ago, I was impressed that KS was hiring people like Anil Chitrakar, Bhusan Tuladhar, Renchin Yonjan (all very opinionated folks!) to help him out
with his municipal work.
I wish KS all the best, and thank him for his (so far informal, but soon to be formal) support to possibly help hold a Kathmandu-wide week-long Arts Festival (patterned after, say, something like The Edinburgh Art Festival in Scotland)
later this year in CatManDo.
If everything goes well, and it's too early to tell, the Festival will be a platform to apply -- in a public-service way -- hard-nosed business strategies to the love of the arts to make the Arts Festival a critical and financial success, and something
of an annual event.
Hopefully, it will be something that the entire Kathmandu can be proud of and be inspired through the works of our artists (broadly defined). Let's see how things go.
KS's support is crucial for the success of this venture.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 10-Feb-02 07:19 PM
Mayor Sthapit Rocks.
Link to an interview in Spotlight with Mayor Sthapit.
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/englishweekly/spotlight/2002/feb/feb08/national4.htm
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