Bandh culture – as seen in Itahari
Bandh – it’s culture now in Nepal. For one section it is best alternatives for earning, for others amusement and for a larger mass it is panic and torture. Administration and political groups care little on it, which has worsened people’s faith on them.
Biratnagar was not closed on Wednesday when I landed there. But as passenger buses were less than usual, these overloaded bus conductors were still luring passengers standing on the highway saying there is likely to be strike shortly. No one seems to be asking who will announce bandh but seen hurried to catch the one at their hand to get to the destinations at the earliest.
Fewer buses plying on the road turned out to be an opportunity for private van owners for earning. A van stopped at the airport gate agreeing to drop me at Damak with just Rs 80 charge. The van plying without number plate received four passengers for Damak. I boarded it and the murky journey started.
For this van, Rs 100 was enough to escape the grip of traffic police near Duhabi who were checking licenses and blue books. Every vehicle driver had a green note on hand waiting for the police to ask for license.
An unexpected bandh at eastern side of Itahari ended my journey on van. Interestingly, there were less than a dozen people blocking the highway. Two young men having grey colour-hair, with a mobike parked at the middle of the road and some others shouting for closure, normal transportation along the highway halted all of a sudden. The policemen on the scene could do nothing but to walk along with the youths shouting for closure. The passengers and the passersby were unknown about the cause yet no one dared to ask for it.
In around two kilometer stretch of the highway blocked all of a sudden, rickshaw pullers have a hay day. People worry of their travel, cursing political parties and local authorities, had no alternatives but to pay whatever rickshaw pullers demand. As few wished to walk to get a bus on the other end of the strike, rumours had already filled that blocked distance was around 10 km. For 2 km, they paid as high as 100 per head.