Ramechhap, October 26

As country is reeling under fuel shortage due to blockade at border entry points, most of the hotels in Ramechhap district headquarters Manthali are preparing to pull down their shutters.

“What else can we do amid this deepening fuel crisis?” questioned Shreekrishna Shrestha, proprietor of the Manthali, Devkota chowk-based Hotel SS, adding, “There is no LPG, petrol and diesel in the market.”While most of these hotels have even stopped serving tea these days, a few small eateries have been using firewood. “After we ran out of LPG, we have been using firewood for the past two weeks. But even the price of firewood has shot up,” said Dinesh Karmacharya, owner of Sun Rise Food and Café. Karmacharya said that firewood was in short supply and he might close his hotel in a few days if the fuel crisis persists. “Apart from fuel shortage, prices of daily commodities have also gone up dramatically, which has made it difficult for us to keep operating our businesses,” he confided.