Services stalled due to stir: India

New Delhi: India feels the statute of the new Nepali Constitution was discriminatory to ethnic Indian community, Madhesi, living in Nepal’s border districts. These areas also witnessed violent protests by the Madhesis during the drafting of the Nepal Constitution.

Hours after the Constitution was passed by an overwhelming majority, violence escalated and soon after Indian trucks, which trundle daily across the borders with essential supplies towards Kathmandu, stopped.

According to reports, hundreds of trucks were waiting at the border with shipments including medicine, gasoline, cooking fuel and produce. India has dismissed suggestions that it has imposed any embargo against the supplies to Nepal and has maintained that the obstruction was due to protest and unrest in that country as Indian companies and transporters fear for their safety and security.

However, the Nepalese envoy said his government has given assurance to India that it will ensure their safety and security after entering Nepal. He also asked India to “forget all the negativities caused by any mistake” of Nepal Government and move forward in a positive way that will be beneficial for both the countries, which have had very strong cultural and social ties.

The envoy also rued that despite an agreement with Indian Oil under which petrol, diesel, LPG and jet fuel are currently trucked from IOC depot at Raxaul to Nepal, they were not supplying the same. IOC has signed an agreement in August this year with Nepal Oil Corp to lay a Rs 275-crore oil pipeline.