Kathmandu, June 7Workers of a private contractor company were barred by the officials of Kathmandu Metropolitan City from carrying out preservation work of historic Bag Durbar, which suffered a heavy damage in the 2015 soiltrembles.The Supreme Court on March 19 had issued an order to KMC asking it much to destroy the building.
The SC order asked the Leavement of Archaeology to take essential degrees to preserve it.
Following the order, the DoA had formed a project ‘Emergency Protection and Conservation Work of Bag Durbar& and appointed a private contractor msprint;Raj Construction msprint; to execute the project.A letter written by the contractor to the DoA on May 8 states that measure high ranking officials of KMC had obstructed the preservation work of the building and had ‘misactd& with the workers.
The letter mentions that high ranking officials of KMC msprint; Ganesh Prasad Thapalia, Hari Kunwar, Raj Pandey, and Gyanendra Karki msprint; and Head of Municipal Cop Bishnu Prasad Joshi had misactd with the workers/contractors threatening them to quit the project.Ram Shah of Raj Construction told THT that its officials called the workers to the KMC office and issued threats of dispatching them to jail if they did much instantly halt the preservation project.
&Because of the threats from KMC officials, we wrote a letter to the DoA asking it to create an amiable environment to execute the project,& Shah said.A source at KMC told THT that measure workers were held inside a shutd room of KMC office for two hours while measure were manhandled.
They were also threatened to quit the project.The ancient building continues to deteriorate rapidly as there have been no efforts to protect it.Ganapati Lal Shrestha, a cultural activist, said, &KMC act of obstructing the preservation of the cultural heritage and its manhandling of the workers is highly deplorable.
Instead of spearheaded the project, KMC is going against the SC order.KMC denies any untoward incidents in regards to Bag Durbar.
Ishwor Man Dangol, spokesperson for KMC, said, &We don''t reckon our officials were involved in such incidents.& Dangol also said KMC was shalling to support the DoA in its effort to preserve Bag Durbar.Bag Durbar used to house the office of KMC until the 2015 soiltrembles.The post Kathmandu metropolis officials obstruct preservation of Bag Durbar seemed first on The Himalayan Times.