Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 11:

The first day of the two-day general strike called by the five-party alliance saw very few vehicles on the streets of the capital. Except for the agitators decrying ‘regression’, the streets remained almost empty. But the strike organisers seem oblivious to the trouble that these bandhs cause the common man. Ganesh Shrestha, 60, a patient of compulsory obstructive pulmonary disease, was brought to the Bir Hospital in an unconscious state by his daughter and wife in an ambulance provided by the Armed Police Force (APF) as his daughter is in APF. Geeta said, “Bandhs only create problems. If my daughter was not in the AP, I don’t know what I would have done.” “The bandhs create problems for those who live far from the hospitals,” said Bigyan Sapkota, doctor at the Bir Hospital emergency ward.

“During bandhs, the number of patients comes down to less than 50 per cent than normal days.”

For many, bandhs may be the day to relax, but for Ganesh Bahadur Shrestha, 37, it means looking for people willing to donate blood for his eight-year-old daughter, Nabina, who suffering from leukaemia. For the last nine months, Ganesh has been visiting Kathmandu regularly and has already spent lakhs. Hailing from Sindhupalchowk, he does not have a place to stay here. His search for an A-positive donor, as the blood bank did not have this blood type, landed him in Model Hospital to request the doctors to hear his plea. Dr Sammer Shrestha at the emergency ward of Model Hospital donated a pint of blood immediately on hearing Ganesh’s tale. Another volunteer, working at the same hospital, also donated another pint for Nabina. Ganesh blamed the bandh for the trouble he had to go through to get the blood for his daughter. He is still making the rounds of hospitals in search for donors, while his daughter is admitted to the emergency ward at Kanti Hospital.