January 29, 2024 – By Kushal Basnet
A fresh ban on roadside parking issued by the municipal government led by Balen Shah has caused an uproar among local shopkeepers and his political opponents.
Who is Balen Shah? The current independent mayor of Kathmandu, chosen in May 2022, won the election based on a program promising to tackle several sticky problems plaguing the city, like the lack of well-organised solid waste management, the chaotic parking infrastructure, the need for the clearance of illegal slum building and better hawker management. In short, Shah wanted to make the city beautiful again by instigating firm policies after untamed growth in the last decades.
While these policies seem to be applauded by large parts of the population, they also encounter opposition when the cleaning up gets in the way of the existing material interests of stakeholders who profit from the mess Balen is trying to clear up. Banning the prevailing parking liberties in central Kathmandu may harm the business interests of those who own the shops being visited by the passengers of the cars parking in front of their establishments. This problem is a common plight for all urban governments in Kathmandu and worldwide.
New Road and its vicinity are among the busiest areas in Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC). The area – covering the inner parts of the city, such as Dharmapath, Indrachowk, Khichapokhari, Mahabouddha, and Bir Hospital – is the city’s go-to place for buying daily goods, apparel, and gadgets.
The end of a contract that allowed various organisations to collect parking charges from the roadsides paved the way for making the streets wider while curbing the hindrance caused by traffic overload.
The metropolis will provide a free parking facility at Kathmandu View Tower, within walking distance from the New Road area. KMC expects relief for traffic in the busy area as the new parking lot will accommodate 300 four-wheelers and 700 two-wheelers. KMC is not charging any fine for violating the new parking rules but plans to impose penalties for effective implementation.
Some business owners from the areas affected by the ban are unhappy with removing the roadside parking facility. They have joined social organisations and business interest groups to fight the ban. As a protest, the business owners shut down their shops and took to the streets to condemn the move. They fear that this can bring losses to their businesses.
Social media posts depict a sharp division of opinions on the parking ban and related issues. Some users have taken the side of the business owners, arguing that the step is another one putting the local economy in danger. The opposite viewpoint is that the city administration has fulfilled its duty by making the streets more navigable.
Last year, the KMC banned footpath shops in Kathmandu. That ban triggered a public debate on whether the mayor’s campaign promises align with his policies. Shah is well-known for channelling his views via social media. During his campaign to win the elections, he launched a song devoted to ‘Chameli’ (jasmine), claiming that ‘no one speaks for the poor’, which went viral. His opponents, in turn, chose the name ‘Chameli Group’ to label the combined resistance against Shah’s policies.
Backed by the group, a well-known social activist – named ‘Iih’ – stood outside the metropolitan city office for nine days, calling for justice for those surviving on the footpath shops. Party leaders such as KP Oli, Baburam Bhattarai, Kamal Thapa, Gagan Thapa, and Swarnim Wagle, who are or have been lawmakers, criticised the mayor’s decision as a push to Iih’s protest. A Facebook status from Balen Shah’s official account explained how his ban on footpath shops is guided by the Federal laws of the same political leaders criticising the ban.
The Shah administration then announced that a place would be designated for such vendors. The Chameli Group backed off, and their delegation signed an agreement with the same terms as announced by the administration earlier.
The shop owners affected by the ban on footpath businesses have joined the New Road business owners in protesting Balen, calling for a retraction of the decisions.
The issues of footpath shop owners and New Road businessmen only represent a fraction of the polarisation phenomenon involving the mayor. When Shah talked about getting Kathmandu rid of slums, there was resistance from the slum-dwellers with the backing of political parties. Kathmandu was divided into pro-Balen and anti-Balen viewpoints. Mayor Shah, also a famous rapper, has a significant following on and off social media.
Mayor Shah had promised to solve the city’s waste problem, but he faced several obstructions, including the denial of local governments, with which Kathmandu had been coordinating for dumping the waste.
Shah’s rise parallels the increase in unpopularity of Nepal’s political parties. As Shah has openly expressed the difficulty of coordination between the local and federal governments, PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal and his aides deny any discomfort in cooperating with the mayor.
The polarisation in Kathmandu is mounting with each step from the mayor’s administration. As people polarise, Mayor Shah is gaining strength as his supporters are siding closer and closer with him, but resistance against him is also getting wider in terms of those who are affected by his administration’s decisions.
A tendency of protest has come merely because we people can’t think for mass benefit compared to the petty individual self- benefit. Is it going to make the business area more effectively movable area. In a long run, such protesting people will realize the positive impact of this move.