February 8, 2016
KATHMANDU: The Madhesi community of the Terai plains in Nepal protesting for
regional privileges in the new Constitution on Monday called off their nearly five-
month-old blockade at the border with India. The violent agitation had led to
shortages of essential commodities like fuel and medicine in the erstwhile
Himalayan kingdom, leading to Indo-Nepal ties.
On Friday the local traders had set fire to the tent and barricade set up by the
Front on the Birganj-Raxaul border to choke off supply of fuel and other essentials
to Nepal.
Although the Front officially withdrew its protests only on Monday, cargo trucks
had started passing through the Birganj-Raxaul check-point on Friday itself.
“Considering the current crisis facing the nation and the public necessity and
aspirations, the ongoing protest programmes of general strike, border blockade,
government office shutdown have been called off for now,” the United Democratic
Madhesi Front (UDMF) said in a statement. “The agitation will continue till our
demands are addressed,” the statement added.
The announcement has come on the eve of Prime Minister K P Oli’s trip to India on
February 19, the first overseas visit of the new Nepalese premier. Oli welcomed
the decision to call off the stir. “I am confident that the differences and disputes
can be addressed through talks among us,” he said.
The Madhesis are opposed to the new Constitution which divides ancestral
homeland Terai under a seven-province structure. The blockade had also led to
strain in the Indo-Neopal ties, both accusing each other for the crisis. India had
said it had imposed no blockade.
