Pandemic padlocks Bihar’s ‘roti-beti’ relations with Nepal

BETTIAH: Where traffic used to be a crawl, the road to the Nepalese metropolis of Birgunj, past the Indian Customs and Immigration offices at the Raxaul border, now lies deserted. The pandemic has taken away livelihoods.

"Hundreds of labourers from villages on our side who worked in factories dotting the Parsa-Bara industrial corridor in Nepal have been rendered jobless by the lockdown on both sides of the border," Mahesh Agarwal, Bihar President of the Seema Jagran Manch told TOI on Wednesday.

"Not only the daily wagers who trekked across the border but the other sectors of the economy, too, have been badly hit. Cross-border weddings have been hit, our roti-beti relationship with Nepal has been padlocked," Agarwal, whose grocery outlet on the border has seen an 80% fall in sales with cross-border customers locked out, rued.

"People are facing a double threat-- to save their lives from the Coronavirus as well as from dipped or no incomes," he said, adding, that small retailers are the worst hit. "Banks must bail them out,’ he pleaded.

Across the border, banking has taken a hit too. "Banks in Lumbini have been closed due to the Covid upsurge, resulting in the breakdown of commercial transactions," Madhav Rajpal, Vice President of the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry told this reporter over the phone. "The government had not prepared for the second wave. The situation is pitiable," his lament not different from suffering voices on the Indian side.

"Industrial units on the Parsa-Bara corridor have switched to producing medical oxygen. The industry has been hit and yet we are producing just about 1,500 cylinders of oxygen," he said, ruing the shortage of empty cylinders across Nepal. "Even the big hospitals are throwing their hands up. But citizens forced to be in home-isolation too need oxygen," he again echoes cross-border woes. "Fortunately, the Integrated Check Post and Dry Port here are open and pre-ordered rakes and container loads of supplies are coming in," he said.

"The oxygen shortage is devastating. The system seems to have collapsed," Uttam Agarwal, a hardware merchant in Birgunj, reported in a phone conversation with relatives in Bettiah. "People can source groceries and milk only in the 5 am-9 am relaxation of curfew," Rajpal said, adding, "The construction business is at a standstill, freezing the sale of steel and cement. Though medicine shops are open 24 hours, shortages are being reported."

"We had run out of even Paracetamol but now supplies have come. Even supplies of drugs like Remedisivir are now expected from Bangladesh and India," he said. Nepali media, meanwhile, has been reporting black marketing of masks, medicines and oxymeters. Just last week, the Birgunj Police arrested one Ramhari Tiwary for selling oxymeters for 3,500 NR. Its cost, in Nepali rupee, is 1,700.

"Hotels are closed. Tourists who drove to Chitwan are not there. Tourism, vital to our economy, has been hit hard," Birgunj chamber of commerce VP Madhav Rajpal bemoaned. However, up in the mountains, Nepal’s expedition industry has had a record year.

"We have had over 400 climbers on the Everest. But that’s it. The economy has taken a big, big hit and that is the least of our worries now. Grappling with the pandemic is our only priority at the moment. The coronavirus has scaled even Mount Everest," said Raj Gyawali, convener of Nepal Tourism Think Tank-Into the Future.


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