Over 100 vehicles enter via Bhairahawa customs; Private vehicles not to get fuel refilling facility

Rupandehi / September 30: The Belhia checkpoint of Bhairahawa, which was halted Tuesday following a day of normal operation, has reopened from Wednesday.

Vehicles carrying essential goods are entering Nepal via Bhairahawa customs checkpoint unobstructed with the decision of Wednesday’s meeting of the security and customs officials of Nepal and India to allow entry of vehicles blocked in India to Nepal.

It is learnt that more than 100 goods-laden trucks and buses have come Nepal via Belahiya checkpoint of Bhairahawa. According to Belahiya Area Police Office Chief Inspector Rabin Babu Regmi, vehicles including 52 trucks, six tankers carrying petroleum products, a bullet of LPG cooking gas, five tankers carrying carbon oxygen, 21 buses and more than 40 pick-up vans have entered Nepal as of 5.00 pm.

Police said that the trucks that entered Nepal are laden with fruits, new motorbikes, wheat, rice, mustard, cement, onion, potato and tires. The entry of vehicles carrying varieties of goods is still on.

The vehicles have entered Nepal via the checkpoint in absence of cadres of the agitating United Democratic Madhes Front (UDMF) at the no-man’s land. The meeting of the security and customs officials of both the countries held today to ensure smooth entry of vehicles to Nepal from India after the clash between agitating cadres and police at bordering Belahiya on Tuesday.

The stranded tankers and other trucks carrying goods are being escorted by Indian police with tight security to the bordering. The vehicles are smoothly entering Nepal when there was no obstruction from Indian side at the border.

The tarai based some parties have been supporting India’s move to impose undeclared blockade in Nepal by creating obstacles in India’s custom points. In the past the government used to bring goods through police escorting but this time India has halted the supply of goods in the name of tarai unrest.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry has said that it would not be able to provide fuel refilling facility to the private vehicles (with red registration plate) effective Thursday. The decision would be effective for three days.

A joint meeting of the Ministry, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Transport Management, Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, the three security agencies and Nepal Oil Corporation decided that due to the current situation fuel would not be provided to private vehicles, good carriers and school and college buses, according to Home Ministry spokesperson Laxmi Prasad Dhakal.

The decision will be reviewed after three days, considering the stock of fuel with the Nepal Oil Corporation. The public transportation service providers however will receive fuel on the even and odd-number basis. The decision was taken to avoid essential services.

Unlike in the past, when people used to make hue and cry when such supplies cut for a single day, the people have been supporting the government’s move saying all Nepali should stand together to counter India’s interference in Internal affairs of the country. Many people have welcomed the government’s move and requested their peers to walk if they need to walk for a short distance so that there will be no crowd in the public vehicles. (With inputs from RSS)