Nepal faces shortage of salt, petrol

The week-old 'indefinite' economic blockade enforced by Maoist rebels in Nepal has led to shortage of salt and petrol in the country.

The success of the Maoists call can be gauged by the rows of oil tankers and stacks of salt bags piling up in Rupaidiha (about 56 km from Bahraich), the last Indian town bordering Nepalgunj on the other side.

Maoists, who were earlier protesting against the democratic Deuba government, are now battling the Royal Nepalese Army that has been entrusted with the overall governance of the country ever since King Gyanendra staged a coup and assumed total power on February 1.

The idea of the rebels behind the blockade is to cripple the administration by disallowing inter-city movement of vehicles in the land-locked country.

A police official from Rupaidiha told rediff.com over telephone, "As many as one lakh Nepal-bound bags of salt had arrived in a railway rake around a week back at Rupaidiha railway station, but because of the unwillingness of truck operators to carry it across the border the bags could not be sent to Nepal and are stacked here."

Reports from Nepalgunj (barely 3 km from the Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border) confirmed that traders in the Himalayan kingdom were anxiously waiting for salt supplies.

A journalist working for a Nepalese tabloid told rediff.com, "The price of salt has already gone up and if fresh stocks from India is not ensured, a serious crisis is imminent."

Indian officials did manage to persuade 43 petrol and diesel tankers to cross over to Nepal. However, according to the journalist, "The tankers were parked barely one km inside the border (near the Nepali customs check-post) as no driver was willing to proceed further on account of the Maoists threat."

"Unless full security is assured, how can we risk carrying this highly inflammable material deeper into Nepal," a trucker was stated to have told the Nepali scribe.

The tankers were to get emptied at the Nepal Oil Corporation depot near the Nepalgunj airport, about 15 km from the border, from where the Nepali authorities carried out further distribution to different towns in the trouble-torn Western Nepal region.