AFP/Kathmandu


Nepal called on foreign oil companies yesterday to air-lift fuel into the landlocked country to ease a nationwide shortage as supplies from India remain blocked by protesters, officials said.
Scores of trucks have been stranded at a key India-Nepal border checkpoint for almost two weeks, cutting off vital supplies and forcing fuel rationing, as ethnic minorities protest against the Himalayan nation’s new constitution.
“We have issued a notice for global suppliers willing to bring in fuel by air... including aviation fuel, cooking gas, petrol and diesel,” said Bijay Satyal, manager of state-run Nepal Oil Corporation.
The appeal comes ahead of a major festival when many Nepalis leave Kathmandu and travel back to their villages to celebrate with relatives.
The government began rationing supplies last week and long queues formed at petrol stations as shortages bit across Nepal, which imports all its fuel from India.
“We have to take this step because currently we are getting maybe 5% of what we normally get in terms of fuel,” Satyal told AFP.
Nepal flew in fuel from Bangladesh and Singapore in 1989 after an incensed India slapped a trade embargo on its neighbour for buying arms from rival giant China.
Nepal has accused India of being behind the latest blockade at the bridge checkpoint in Birgunj, 90km south of the capital, in protest at Kathmandu’s handling of the charter.
But India, which fears instability on the border, denies the claims and has urged dialogue with protesters to end the stand-off which started on September 24.
More than 40 people have been killed in clashes between police and protesters representing ethnic minorities who say a new federal structure laid out in the constitution adopted last month will leave them under-represented in the national parliament.
The charter  -- Nepal’s first to be drawn up by elected representatives -- marks the final stage in a peace process that began when Maoist rebels laid down their arms in 2006 after a decade-long insurgency.
Work on the new constitution began in 2008 after the Maoists won parliamentary elections and abolished the monarchy. But power-sharing squabbles between parties stymied progress.
Lawmakers finally reached agreement in June, spurred by a massive earthquake two months earlier that killed nearly 8,900 people and left half a million people homeless.
An ultralight aircraft with two people on board went missing in western Nepal yesterday during a morning flight to see the country’s snow-capped peaks, an official said.
The plane, with a Russian pilot and a South African passenger, took off midmorning on an hour-long sightseeing tour from Pokhara, the tourist town’s airport chief Deepak Baral said.
“When the flight didn’t return to Pokhara airport, we started to make enquiries and realised it was missing,” Baral told AFP.
“We will continue to search for it,” he added.
Depending on the amount of fuel on board, such planes can stay in the air for up to four hours, according to Baral.
Pokhara, about 150km west of Kathmandu and flanked by the majestic Annapurna range, attracts thousands of visitors annually thanks to its scenic mountain views and clear, dry winters.
But the April 25 earthquake which killed nearly 8,900 people raised fears for the immediate future of the tourism industry in the impoverished Himalayan nation.