Nepal's Transit Deal with China Makes No Headway Even After Five Years
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WI THOUT F EAR O R F A V O U R Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXIX No. 143 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 36.6 C 14.0 C Sunday, July 11, 2021 | 27-03-2078 Nepalgunj Jomsom Nepal’s transit deal with China makes no headway even after five years Agreement to allow Nepal access to seven Chinese sea and land ports for third-country trade remains idle because of Kathmandu’s failure to push for its implementation. ANIL GIRI op even the standard operating proce- KATHMANDU, JULY 10 dure (SOP) on implementing the tran- sit agreement. In May 2016, KP Sharma Oli, who was Experts and former officials who appointed prime minister in October were part of negotiations to complete 2015 following the promulgation of the agreement said the government the constitution, signed a landmark failed to accord the required priority Transit and Transportation to implement the agreement. Agreement with China. “Nepal has yet to receive a single The deal came on the heels of a consignment from any third country months-long border blockade imposed via China under the agreement that by New Delhi in response to the adop- the government signed five years tion of the constitution by Nepal. The ago,” said Purushottam Ojha, a for- hardships created by the Indian bor- mer commerce and industry secretary. der blockade pushed Nepal to find “It looks like the government wanted ways to diversify its trade and transit to show India that Nepal also has a options with other countries. transit agreement with China.” In April, 2019, a little over a year The signing of the protocol meant after Oli returned to power, Nepal and Nepal could use four Chinese sea POST PHOTO: SANJOG MANANDHAR China signed the protocol on imple- ports in Tianjin, Shenzhen, People are caught in the rain as a downpour floods a street at Anamnagar, Kathmandu on Saturday. Poor drainage, compounded by unmanaged road extensions, causes flooding in different menting the Trade and Transit Lianyungang and Zhanjiang, and parts of the city during the monsoon. Agreement, which meant Nepal could three land ports in Lanzhou, Lhasa use seven Chinese sea and land ports and Shigatse for third-country for third-country trade. imports. The agreement also allowed Oli received accolades for turning Nepal to carry out exports through six north to break Nepal’s near-complete dedicated transit between Nepal and dependency on the southern neigh- China. For decades, Nepal has com- INSIDE Nepal must pursue inundation issues bour for third-country trade. pletely relied on India for its It’s more than five years since the third-country trade, for various rea- agreement was signed and over two sons including historical relationship, Five years on, Phopli landslide years since the protocol was signed, open border and road infrastructure. victims yet to receive any help with India year round, observers say but Nepal and China have yet to devel- >> Continued on page 2 PYUTHAN: Five years ago, Teke Pun, a resident of Phopli in Naubahini It is only during flooding in monsoon that authorities take Rural Municipality-8, Pyuthan, lost his daughter-in-law and grandson in up this perennial problem and even then the southern a landslide just above his house. Pun also lost 10 other relatives in the same neighbour continues to ignore concerns. landslide. “Every monsoon, I get reminded of that tragic day,” Pun said. “Our settlement is still at risk of landslides. The authorities have yet to move the settlement to a safe location.” Another Chhima Pun of the same settlement also lost her fam- ily members in the landslide five years ago. “My brother and two sis- ters were killed in the landslide that swept away our house. We have been living in a shed since then,” she said. According to the District Administration Office in Pyuthan, the landslide of July 25, 2016 had killed 27 individuals in Phopli and displaced around 200 families. Soon after the massive landslide, the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had assured the landslide victims of relief on a par with the earthquake victims of 2015. (Details on Pg 2) Government lab starts POST PHOTO: MANOJ PAUDEL performing whole genome A resident of Yashodhara Rural Municipality, Kapilvastu shows an inundated paddy field caused by the Mahalisagar dam near the border on the Indian side. Hectares of newly planted sequencing tests paddy fields are under water. KATHMANDU: The National Public Health Laboratory has started per- BINOD GHIMIRE & ANIL GIRI loss of millions of rupees,” Grijesh forming whole-genome sequencing KATHMANDU, JULY 10 Kumar Pandey, chairperson of the tests in its own laboratory. The rural municipality, told the Post. “This whole-genome sequencing technology Lalji Yadav from Bhagwanpur in is our perennial problem.” was set up with financial assistance Yashodhara Rural Municipality, The Indian authority has construct- from the World Health Organization. Kapilvastu completed paddy planta- ed a barrage on the stream less than a “We have already performed a tion on his nine bighas of land spend- kilometre away from the Nepal-India whole-genome sequencing test of ing Rs7,000 per bigha (equivalent to border. over 100 swab samples of the infected 0.675 hectares) on farm workers on According to Buddhi Narayan people,” Rajesh Kumar Gupta, spokes- Monday. It took three days for seven Shrestha, an expert on border issues, person for the laboratory, told the labourers to complete the plantation. the international practice is that the Post. “Now we can regularly perform But since Wednesday his entire bordering countries don’t construct whole genome sequencing in our own paddy field has been inundated. any structures that block the natural laboratory. It helps to know which “Everything has been destroyed flow of a river 15 kilometers down- virus is circulating in the country, now,” he said. “I cannot even locate stream and upstream of the border. and if the virus has changed its vari- the paddy field due to the water.” Pandey said they have been raising ant or how infectious the virus is.” Fursat Dhuniya’s three bighas of the issue for years but it has not been The tests are being conducted under land are also inundated. resolved because the federal govern- the supervision of the technicians Theirs are among the hundreds of ment hasn’t shown an interest. deployed by the WHO. Whole-genome hectares of paddy fields in Yasodhara “This is an issue that needs to be sequencing is a comprehensive meth- Rural Municipality, Kapilvastu resolved by the two countries. What od of analysing the entire DNA district submerged under water due we can do is request our federal gov- sequence of an organism’s genes. to the Mahalisagar barrage erected ernment,” said Pandey. (Details on Pg 3) by India. “However, we have no information The Indian authority closed the out- about any concrete steps it has taken lets of the barrage built on Masaiya to find the solution.” Central bank governor hints stream as its water level increased, Nepal asked Indian authorities last at a relatively less facilitative leading to inundation in Bhagwanpur, week to open Mahalisagar barrage monetary policy for businesses Rangpur, Bhainsaiya and Loharauli gates, according to Madhukar Prasad villages under the rural municipality. Rajbhandari, director general at the KATHMANDU: A top central bank offi- “The newly transplanted paddy sap- Department of Water Resources and cial hinted that the monetary policy lings have rotten now, resulting in a Irrigation. But apparently it has not for the next fiscal year 2021-22 won’t been done, to the despair of peo- be as facilitative for businesses as it ple like Dhuniya. was in the current fiscal year with “How will I feed my six-mem- the central bank expecting that the ber family now?” he said. “Paddy economic activities might operate is our main source of survival.” normally to a large extent in the sec- Inundation in Tarai districts ond half of the fiscal year that begins because of dams, embankments, on July 16. The Nepal Rastra Bank is roads and other structures built currently preparing to introduce the by the Indians on their side of monetary policy for the next fiscal the border has been a perennial year which is expected to announce problem, but the issue gets atten- certain facilities for businesses hit tion in Nepal only when the dis- hard by the second wave of Covid-19 aster strikes every monsoon. pandemic. (Details on Pg 5) >> Continued on page 2 C M Y K SUNDAY, JULY 11, 2021 | 02 NATIONAL Five years on, Phopli landslide victims yet to receive any help The landslide of July 25, 2016 killed 27 individuals and displaced around 200 families. SHAMSHER BIKRAM GC ernment,” said Chhima. “We only got displaced families in Phopli. PYUTHAN, JULY 10 some clothes and food grains as relief But the local people do not want to after the disaster.” move there, as the houses have been Five years ago, Teke Pun, a resident According to the local people of built in the middle of the forest and of Phopli in Naubahini Rural Phopli, around 50 households in they are reluctant to leave their ances- Municipality-8, Pyuthan, lost his the village are still at high risk of tral village. daughter-in-law and grandson in a landslides. Shivaraj Rijal, the chairman landslide just above his house. Pun “Many politicians visited us and of Naubahini Rural Municipality, also lost 10 other relatives in the same promised to relocate the settlement to said the local unit has also managed landslide. a safe location.