Security personnel remain busy controlling protesters during daytime. They are also busy all night escorting vehicles carrying goods imported from India. However, all this has not been enough to bring life back to normal for the locals.
Transport laborers stranded midway in their journeys are struggling to survive. The transport entrepreneurs of Biratnagar have been providing them food for free. However, they have to sleep inside their vehicles.
"Today is the 16th day of the banda in the Terai. School children, who have already been deprived of classes for a month after the recent earthquakes, have now been similarly deprived again for more than half a month," said Tikaram Dhakal, chairman of PABSON, Morang.
Even though the schools have been declared a zone of peace, the banda enforcers have closed them down, he further said.
Bishwa Gurung, a travel agency entrepreneur, told Republica that there is a press of passengers flying to the capital from Biratnagar. "Some 100 of them are turning back without any air tickets on a daily basis," he added.
In Saptari, the teachers' unions have also supported the strike organizers and closed down the institutions they are associated with. Hira Raut, a local of Rajbiraj, said that the prices of daily commodities including vegetables are soaring due to the banda.
The impact in Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara and Parsa districts has been similar. Academic institutions, industrial establishments, market areas and transport services have been disrupted.
According to the staff at government offices, they have stopped attending their offices, fearing vandalism and attacks by the protestors.
Acute shortages have developed and black-marketeering in items of daily necessity, including LPG and other petroleum products, is rampant.
"Motorbike owners are compelled to purchase petrol at three times the actual price," said Ram Dular Sah, a local of Janakpur, Dhanusha.
Market prices have skyrocketed, according to Sunita Yadav, a Siraha housewife. "A kilo of potato cost Rs 40 before the banda. It has now increased to Rs 80," she said.
However, the local administration has not shown concern for the problems facing consumers. Consumer forums and social organizations that stood by them most times are supporting the banda this time.
Distribution of national newspapers halted
Irate agitators have also halted the distribution of national dallies for the last two weeks. Vehicles carrying daily newspapers, including Nagarik, Kantipur and Annapurna Post printed from Biratnagar, have not been allowed to reach the western parts of the Terai from Inaruwa.
Although the regional offices of the newspapers have already put their problem before senior leaders of the agitating Morcha, including Upendra Yadav and Rajendra Mahato, they have yet to help ease the distribution of the dailies.
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