Bureaucrats, MPs are also bearing the brunt

Kathmandu, February 23:

The fuel crisis has not hit the commoners alone; it has also hit the high class. Ask bureaucrats and parliaments if you don’t believe.

A government secretary said on condition of anonymity that he was coping with the fuel shortage by having chiura (beaten rice) and aalu tarkari (potato curry) for evening meal. I cook morning meal on kerosene stove, he said, adding, “We don’t have someone to stand in the queue of gas retailer either.”

Asked if high officials enjoy special privileges, the government secretary said he would not have been using old stacked kerosene stove if he had been getting special privileges.

“We are also commoners and we also go through hardships when the country is in crisis,”

he said.

Lawmaker Hari Roka said he has been using bhusko chulho (the stove in which saw dust is used as fuel) to cook meal. He also does not enjoy special privilege. He said he has asked acquaintances to get him some fuel, but in vain.

“I cannot imagine the situation if the fuel crisis persists for some more days,” he said. Roka urged the government to find a “political solution to this problem”. “Only talking big will not solve the problem. The minister concerned must resign if the government cannot solve the problem.”

Dr Arjun Pant, consultant at the Kanti Hospital, said finding cooking gas has become impossible. “We are saving fuel by preparing food for morning and evening at the same time.”

But he has been finding it difficult to store food due to the eight-hour-a-day load-shedding. “We have no option except to gherao Singh Durbar, demanding gas,” he said.

Lokbilash Panta of New Baneshwor said his stock of gas will last for about two weeks. “I don’t want to think what will happen thereafter,” he said.

The students, who have come to study in Kathmandu from various parts of the country, are also in dire straits. Subodh Dahal, a BBS II year student at the Nepal Commerce Campus, said he has been eating at his relatives’ and friends’ places.

“I have been hopping from one house to another for two weeks,” Dahal, who hails from Jhapa district, said.