Blockade, strikes dampen Dashain

Locals feel the pain during festive season

BIRGUNJ, Oct 28: Dashain is over but locals in Burgunj did not feel any joy of the festive season. The on-going strikes, which started one-and-a-half months ago, have dampened the mood.

The high-pitched slogans of the protestors were more audible than the singing of seasonal hymns. Business and commerce couldn't come into operation. At the same time, the locals are also worried that Tihar and Chhath, the biggest festival of Madhes, might also be affected due to the strikes and the border- centric blockade.

BIRGUNJ, Oct 28: Dashain is over but locals in Burgunj did not feel any joy of the festive season. The on-going strikes, which started one-and-a-half months ago, have dampened the mood.

The high-pitched slogans of the protestors were more audible than the singing of seasonal hymns. Business and commerce couldn't come into operation. At the same time, the locals are also worried that Tihar and Chhath, the biggest festival of Madhes, might also be affected due to the strikes and the border- centric blockade.

Local people are forced to live with high price-inflation and they also face horrendous problems when they need to travel. They became even more terrified after protestors emptied fuel from motorcycles, accusing the bikers of helping the government transport fuel.

"I bought petrol at Rs. 200 per liter to go to Kathmandu but the protestors seized my motorbike and emptied the fuel even before I crossed Birgunj," said a Birgunj local. "There was no one I could turn to for help. The government does not seem to care."

Advocate Panna Lal Gupta, who is also known as a civil society leader, said that the protests became more intense after the deaths of six youths from bullets fired by police.

"Public participation and feelings are involved in the protests," said Gupta. "People are forced to follow leaders whom they did not trust during the election."

He accused the government, the main parties, media and civil society of not taking any initiative to end the protests.

People are finding it difficult to live from day to day due to the scarcity of basic items. They don't have cooking gas and other everyday essentials even if they are prepared to pay through the nose. Birgunj has had to endure curfews for 22 days since September, apart from the strikes and blockade.

Mounting economic losses

The Birgunj area alone has recorded a loss of more than Rs. 400 billion, according to the private sector. There are some 650 big and 1,500 small industrial outfits in the Birgunj Industrial Corridor. More than 60,000 industrial laborers are employed in the area.

Majority of the industrial units produce or process rice, pulses, oil, medicine, cement and steel, among other things. Industrialist Ashok Vaidya informed that the entire industrial sector is bearing a loss of Rs. 600 million a day on average, incuding wages and salaries, the interest payable on investments, depreciation, minimum electricity charges and production charges.

Likewise, the penalties and demurrage for goods containers and trucks have reached billions. These vehicles are stranded at the border and in Bihar. Around 400 vehicles with imported goods for Nepal are being left out in the open in Raxaul. Government data shows that it has had to bear a loss of around Rs. 20 billion in taxes foregone.