Proposing a resolution of private sector against banda, strikes and chakkajam, a consortium of five chambers of commerce and industry argued that the banda callers should bear major responsibilities, like ensuring peaceful banda, controlling their cadres and paying compensation to any vandalism that takes place during the banda.
The proposal of resolution made public on Friday for public discussion has also demanded that victims of the banda should be allowed to file cases against the banda organizers seeking compensation of the opportunity costs lost due to the banda.
The consortium of chambers of commerce consists of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNNCI), Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), Nepal Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Nepal Cottage and Small Industries and Hotel Association.
Likewise, the draft resolution has also proposed that banda organizers need to take permission from concerned authority before calling banda and that private and public transportations, and restaurants and hotels should be allowed to perform normal operations. “Chakkajam should be banned since it violates the basic right of free movement of the people,” said the resolution.
Addressing a program organized to float the draft resolution, FNCCI president Kush Kumar Joshi expressed irk over the government’s inability to fulfill the past commitments it had pledged with the business community.
"Nepal is probably the only country in which private sector keeps on seeking protection, the government keeps on assuring the private sector and the ultimate result on the ground is nil," he said.
CNI president and Constituent assembly member Binod Kumar Chaudhary said the contribution of industrial sector to the national output has gone down by 6 percent to 10 percent due to the strikes and chakkajam.
Constituent Assembly member Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani said the culture of organizing banda is rapidly growing since the cost of organizing band is nominal. As the organizers don’t have to bear cost of the vandalism and lost opportunities, it has become the best way to make one’s presence felt, he said.
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