KP Sharma Oli: “I had dreamt several dreams on becoming prime minister.”
IANS
Kathmandu
Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli yesterday said his dream to develop a “vibrant” Himalayan nation had been shattered by the “embargo imposed by India”.
After being elected prime minister, Oli said he made many commitments to the nation, including ending the long daily load-shedding, plying electric vehicles in Kathmandu and building a self-reliant economy.
Oli admitted yesterday that he has not been able to fulfill his commitments following the unrest in Nepal’s southern plain for the last four months.
Due to protests and demonstrations at the Nepal-India border entry points, thousands of Nepal-bound freight vehicles are stuck on the Indian side of the border.
This has brought the economy of the landlocked Himalayan nation to a grinding halt. The country is facing shortage of essential supplies like drugs, fuel, food and other materials.
Officials say that if the standoff continues, Nepal will soon face a humanitarian crisis.
Kathmandu describes the situation as an embargo imposed by India while New Delhi maintains that supplies of essential commodities have not been able to move across the border because of the four-month-old Madhesi agitation in Nepal against the country’s new constitution which was promulgated on
September 20.
The Madhesi political parties and indigenous groups of the Nepal Terai oppose the new constitution as discriminatory and demand that it be amended to make it more representative in character. Receiving a memorandum submitted by academicians yesterday, Oli said his plan to make Nepal a developed nation was under a cloud.
“I had dreamt several dreams on becoming prime minister,” he told the academicians.
Nepal’s economic growth witnessed a sharp downfall following the April 25 earthquake which claimed more than 9,000 lives and devastated vast areas in the Himalayan nation.
“The nation has witnessed jolt after jolt due to the quake and the embargo,” Oli said.
“I became prime minister in a very difficult situation. As we were trying to overcome the pain caused by the quake, the embargo along the border came as a serious jolt.”
“I have been trying my best to overcome the pain and suffering,” he added.
Since September, 50 people have died in protests at border points with India, where demonstrators have blocked trucks carrying everything from petrol to medicines from entering the landlocked nation, still reeling from two deadly earthquakes.
The crisis has prompted the United Nations to express deep concern over what it said is a “critical” shortage of lifesaving medicines and fuel, and warns this could put at least three million children at risk of illness in the coming winter months.
Experts say this economic and humanitarian crisis is likely to have a much wider and
longer-term impact.
In streets of the capital Kathmandu, the crisis is evident.
Thousands of residents line up with empty gas cylinders outside fuel depots every day only to be told that the elusive tankers have not arrived from across the Indian border.
With authorities imposing a ration on fuel, motorists line up in queues stretching more than two kilometres outside petrol stations.
On the black market, petrol and diesel smuggled in jerry cans from India sells up to five times the normal price. The cost of commodities like cooking oil has soared amid fears inflation could hit double digits by the end of the year.
Even ready-to-eat items like noodles have disappeared from the shop shelves.
The fuel shortage has led to buses cutting down services, forcing commuters to sit on roofs. Taxis are no longer an option for many as they can’t afford paying six times the normal fare.
Tour operators say the country’s key economic pillar, tourism, is already suffering. On average, 800,000 tourists visit Nepal annually, contributing four percent to the GDP.
Domestic airlines have reduced the number of flights, and hotels are offering only fixed menus to beat the fuel shortage.
