The Scrap Business Struggle Committee staged a protest against Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah on Tuesday, accusing him of harassing scrap business owners.
According to Ram Keval Gupta, coordinator of the committee, for the past two years, the mayor has been using bulldozers on the homes and businesses of scrap traders. Today’s protest was organized to oppose these actions.
Gupta stated, “The Metropolitan Office cannot arbitrarily declare that scrap will not be allowed. We conduct our business on private land, legally leased from individuals, and with government permission. The mayor has no right to interfere like this.”
He added that any issues could be resolved through dialogue, but alleged that the Metropolitan Office is attempting to evict them to generate revenue of one billion rupees. “Demolishing the homes of the poor? Destroying everything and driving us away? They want to remove scrap from Kathmandu to earn one billion rupees,” Gupta said.
