Kathmandu, October 26

The government has sought help of the international community to help ease supplies of fuel and other essentials and avert an imminent humanitarian crisis in the country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently dispatched a circular to almost three dozen diplomatic outposts asking them to make a case that ‘intentional disruption of supplies’ from the Indian side in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes has created a humanitarian crisis in Nepal, officials said.

The government is also in regular touch with the Kathmandu-based foreign diplomatic community to learn about how have they been assessing the situation following disruption in the supply of essential goods, including fuels and medicines.

“We have also asked our foreign missions to give feedback on how their host countries have been assessing the current difficulties faced by Nepal due to disruption of essential supplies from India,” Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi told The Himalayan Times.

Bairagi, however, refrained from terming it as an effort to internationalise the issue, saying, “It’s a part of regular job of our missions to report the views of their host countries on the situation back home.”

The move is aimed at exerting international pressure on New Delhi to ease essential supplies.

Addressing the Parliament on Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa said India had failed to live up to its commitment. The government has also held discussions with Kathmandu-based foreign diplomats on how it can exert pressure on India to ease supplies to Nepal.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Deputy PM and Foreign Minister had earlier held separate meetings with European, American and Chinese envoys in Kathmandu, while the foreign ministry had also sought the views of the United Nations on the issue.

Meanwhile, in a strongly worded statement, Chairperson of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia, Jean Lambert, said,“The unofficial blockade at the Nepali border only serves to hurt the Nepali people who are still recovering from the devastating earthquakes earlier this year”.

Foreign Secretary Bairagi also expressed his dismay over India’s reluctance to translate its words into action, saying that the country was compelled to seek alternatives to ease fuel crisis. An official delegation led by Ambassador of Nepal to China, Mahesh Maskey today left for Beijing to hold talks over fuel supply to Nepal.