Balendra Shah Balen, who won the 2079 election by a huge margin, beating the country’s old and big parties, resigned on Sunday. He was elected in with 61,767 votes. He resigned with the aim of running the federal government. Balen submitted his resignation to Deputy Mayor Sunita Dangol on Sunday to run for the House of Representatives election scheduled for Falgun 21 from Jhapa 5.
Moreover, the discussion has increased everywhere after he prepared to contest the election by targeting UML Chairman KP Oli’s constituency. He worked as a mayor in metropolis for three years and eight months.
In the initial phase, Balen had started work on removing illegal structures, dredging the Tukucha River, and expanding roads. Because of him, a wave of bulldozers and illegal structures were launched across the country. Although he had been trying to remove river encroachment for a long time, he could not complete the work due to the central government’s inaction.
In the 2079 election, Balen had put forward plans ranging from digital government to Idea Bank in his election manifesto. He promised to provide door-to-door services related to personal incident registration and old age allowance distribution to the residents of the metropolis. He had announced to provide career counselling and coaching classes targeted at youth. The manifesto mentioned revising the curriculum for grades one to eight, including history, new ways of managing waste, and taking up mythological teachings such as yoga and Ayurveda.
Balen had promised in point 1 of the manifesto to bring about reforms in community schools and make scholarships transparent. He has shown effective work in conducting a one-day education skills program a week and improving local curricula. Currently, more than 30,000 students in community schools within the metropolis have been provided scholarships. However, the curriculum up to grade eight, as included in the manifesto, has not been revised. He did exemplary work by Nepalizing the names of private schools, expanding the classrooms of community schools, emphasizing digital education, and vacating the shutters illegally rented by community schools. Balen had announced in his election manifesto that he would implement free medical services in 10 hospitals within the metropolis. He fulfilled that promise.
