Nepal Earthquake: Clogged border crossing causes food for victims to rot

Nepal: Fruit, bread and other perishable commodities have begun to go bad as vehicles carrying relief material to quake-hit Nepal wait at a clogged border crossing.

The better known route to the Himalayan nation from Uttar Pradesh, is the Sunauli border near Gorakhpur. But this route is choked these days as hundreds of transport vehicles, light motor vehicles, and state-owned buses from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and elsewhere wait in the serpentine queues as they carry relief material to Nepal.

This has led to delayed customs clearance as well as delay in passing on relief materials resulting in the rotting of many perishable items like fruits, bread, milk and other commodities, rues a volunteer of the Apna Ghar Ashram, Jodhpur.

He also mentioned that he preferred the Badhni-Krishnagar border to cut on “both time and security formalities”.

Mahendra Yadav, head of the Armed Police Force (Customs Section) of Nepal at this outpost, told IANS, “Our customs clearance at Bhansar is completed in a jiffy as there is no maddening rush.”

The customs check point officials said there was a steady increase in traffic from other posts as the Sunauli border is “completely choked”.

Travellers carrying relief material or ferrying people back from Kathmandu and other areas to safer places, aren’t complaining, except for the bad roads in Etwa, which connects the India-Nepal border.

But the Nepalese are stoic. “We are happy that India has come to our rescue. Had there been no help from you people, we shudder to think what would have happened,” Dron Prasad Acharya, running an eatery near the check point, told IANS.

Six days after the deadly earthquake in Nepal that left over 6,000 people dead, this entry point district at the India-Nepal border is buzzing with activity. It’s busy these days as this route is “more convenient and less chaotic” to Kathmandu, the Nepal capital which bore the brunt of the quake.

IANS