Nepal Looks To Alternate Fuel Sources Amid India Blockade

Energy-starved Nepal, reeling from a weeks-long blockade by India, is now looking to import fuel from other countries in hopes of easing the crisis on the eve of the country's festival season.



The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), a state-owned monopoly, is currently seeking proposals from alternate energy suppliers with a view to ending its reliance on its influential southern neighbor.



"With the festival season around the corner, we want to ensure that public transport doesn't face problems [in the form of fuel shortages]," NOC spokesman Deepak Baral told Kantipur, Nepal's largest-circulation newspaper.



"In order to ensure the festival season isn't ruined, we're even ready to have fuel flown in," he said.



Most people in Nepal spend Dashain -- the Hindu-majority country's most important festival -- at home with their families.



The autumn festival also usually sees a big spike in local business, with shoppers buying new clothes and stocking up on food and drinks for the two-week-long celebration. 



Constitution row



India, for its part, has thrown its support behind ongoing protests in Nepal against a new constitution promulgated last month by the Nepalese government.



The protesters, mainly natives of Nepal's southern plains on the border with India, have called for an amendment to the charter that would give their communities more rights and greater political representation.



The government, meanwhile, has already proposed an amendment with a view to addressing the grievances of protesting groups.



Kathmandu accuses New Delhi of imposing a blockade on the landlocked Himalayan country, which, it says, has severely impacted the import of essential supplies, including petrol, cooking gas and medicine.



New Delhi, however, denies any role in the blockade, blaming Nepal's unstable security situation for impeding cross-border traffic.



While a trickle of cargo trucks began crossing into Nepal from India last week, experts say it will take months before the situation returns to normal.



Markets in Kathmandu have been severely impacted by the fuel shortages, with a number of restaurants and businesses shutting their doors and traffic severely disrupted.



Hospitals are running low on medicine and supplies, local media has reported, while even schools may be forced to shut due to the ongoing fuel shortfalls.



Ordinary people in capital Kathmandu, meanwhile, appear to be bearing the brunt of the crisis.



Raj Kumar Lama, a 40-year-old taxi driver in the capital, says he is struggling to make ends meet for his family of four.



"I have been out of work for more than a week now. It will take three days to get fuel [from a state-run gas station]," Lama told Anadolu Agency.



"Instead of working, I'm sitting at home doing nothing. How will I pay my rent and other expenses? We're running out of everything: cooking gas, food and other supplies," he lamented.



Talks between protesters and Nepalese government representatives began Tuesday, but have so far failed to make any headway, with protesting groups accusing state negotiators of unnecessarily prolonging the process. - Nepal