The entire country has been held hostage to the fuel crunch. We can see serpentine queues of consumers wishing to procure cooking gas supplied by the government

Some officials of the Nepal Oil Corporation are claiming that they are not aware of the unethical and illegal practice taking place in the distribution of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) which is mainly used as fuel for cooking. This assertion is a blatant lie as practices like selling the LPG cylinders on the black market are so rampant that nobody has missed the sight and sound of such activities going on. For five months or so, smugglers, black-marketeers and corrupt officials in the supply chain have enjoyed heyday, minting money, with a number of them grossing several millions, lakhs and even tens of thousands according to their position or scale of operations. It is not that action is not being taken at all against the swindlers, for we occasionally get to hear about the CIAA nabbing some of the culprits. But the entire country has been held hostage to the petroleum crunch. We can see serpentine queues of consumers wishing to procure cooking gas supplied by the government. However, if they are willing to pay more for it they can easily buy various brands of them in the black market that are even fully filled although the NOC has barred the bottlers from selling full cylinders.

The bottlers for their part complain about the high transport charge and the high refilling cost. They say that it takes more time to refill the cooking gas in the cylinders which are only half full. This needs an explanation for the bottling plants are supposed to sell only half-full LPG cylinders and the black marketeers have somehow managed to procure full cylinders. The connivance of some officials with unscrupulous private operators has been widely reported. But on the part of the NOC or the government, not much action has been seen against their officials and other employees. The rationale behind permitting the sale of only half-filled cylinders is that if fully filled cylinders are distributed the supply of fuel would dip by 50 per cent. This policy makes sense. Moreover, the bottling plants may have also wanted to compensate, as they claim, for the decrease in their income through an increase in the cost in filling half cylinders. And even if that is so, they have been doing it with vengeance.

There has always been a shortage of LPG gas in the country at irregular intervals for various reasons, such as the failure to pay off the dues to the NOC’s sole Indian supplier but now the situation is worse. Only half the quantity of cooking gas that comes from India during normal times is entering Nepal at present. The country needs about 30,000 tonnes of cooking gas every month at normal times. It is said that although fuel such as petrol and diesel will be sold from the various petrol stations as during normal times soon it will take more time to supply adequate cooking gas in the market. The bottlers say that apart from the increase in the cost, there has been a shortage of cylinders because of this, making the capacity to supply less. The situation is returning to normal as more oil tankers and LPG bullets are entering Nepal these days that during the height of the blockade. But the way the whole situation was managed has left much to be desired.

In full swing

The School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination is round the corner. More than six lakh students have just one and a half months left to catch up with the areas of their courses in which they are less confident. Beginning this year, with the adoption of the letter grading system, no one will be marked ‘Fail’. The authorities concerned are speeding up preparations to make the examination a smooth affair. The printing of the question papers is in full swing. Till 2011, the SLC question papers used to be printed in India for security reasons, showing how lax our security system was or how deep the authorities’ doubt was about being able to keep the questions secret if printed in Nepal. In 2011, the Cabinet took the decision to print the question papers in the country itself.

It is hoped that in setting the questions for this year, the particularly hard and abnormal times for students, teachers, parents and schools have been taken into account -- the earthquakes and its aftermath, the unrest in the Tarai and long closure of the schools there, and the effects of the blockade on Nepalese imports. Authorities should also keep up the gradual improvement taking place in the SLC exam-related matters, and speed up the pace.