PAKHARA, Nepal – Tourism Entrepreneurs today staged a sit-in protest after Pokhara Valley Town Development Committee (PVTDC) decided to give the tourist bus park area of Rastra Bank Chowk on rent to the private sector.
Entrepreneurs have given a memorandum to regional, district administration office and political parties to withdraw the decision.
โIt wonโt give a positive message if the authority offers the area to the private sector for rent,โ said former chairman Kedar Sharma of Nepal Association of Tour and Travels Agents (NATTA). The entrepreneurs also submitted memos to leaders of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist in Kaski.
They said that it was a wrong decision to rent out the area without consensus among all stakeholders. They further added that leaders of local political parties too were against the decision.
The committee had provided land for tourist bus park on the occasion of Visit Nepal Year 16 years ago.
Meanwhile, Chairman Bishnu Bastola of Pokhara Valley Town Development Committee said the committeeโs land can be used by the committee itself. โIt is laughable to protest against the land of the committee,โ he said, adding, โIt is the committeeโs right to use the land for the betterment of the committeeโ. There are two big bus parks โ new and old โ in separate places apart from the tourist bus park, in Pokhara.