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Kathmandu Thursday January 04, 2001 Paush 20, 2057.
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Consumer woes
It is the hall mark of the
present government that there is always one thing or another lacking for the people. The
all important problem of law and order in the country and the continuing problem of Maoist
insurgency -- the two main pranks used by Koirala to stage a political coup against his
own Prime Minister -- remain unsolved. For the common man, there is no relief from the
ever spiralling prices caused by the shortage of one commodity or the other. Sugar is not
easily available in the market and kerosene used by most people for cooking purposes does
the vanishing trick from the market from time to time. And now cooking gas has not been
available to the consumers for almost one and half months. And there are indications that
the shortage will continue. The squabbling between the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), the
sole importer of cooking gas in the country, and the gas dealers, each blaming the other,
really gets the consumer nowhere. The dealers say that they do not have necessary stock of
cooking gas while the NOC says the shortage is "artificial". Artificial or real,
the ultimate sufferers are the consumers and they have not been able to get their supply
of cooking gas and are facing a lot of inconveniences. Some manage to secure their supply
of LPG at "somewhat" higher prices but most people can neither affords
"somewhat higher" prices nor should they do so even if they can.
The government-run Nepal Oil
Corporation should not be allowed to get away with such statements as "shortage is
artificial". The NOC must ensure through proper monitoring that the LPG supplied to
dealers are being properly distributed. The NOC must be ready to punish all those dealers
and retailers found to be hoarding LPG. In addition, there have been calls that the NOC
must not depend only on Indian Oil’s Barauni depot for the supplies to Nepal. This
makes good sense and the NOC should lose no time in securing supplies from as many depots
along the Nepal-India border as possible. This should not prove to be difficult and will
ensure a smooth flow of the commodity into Nepal. But apart from Indian Oil, it is also
time that NOC or private parties begin to explore possibility of importing of cooking gas
from Bangladesh. That country separated by a narrow stretch of Indian territory is known
to have a huge reserve of natural gas and is already exporting to some countries. As is
known to all, dependence on one particular country, no matter how friendly, for anything
is not a good policy. And in line, we do hope that the government will seriously consider
the import of cooking gas from Bangladesh. The Foreign Minister, who is scheduled to visit
Dhaka, we hope, will show us the government cares for the people by taking up the matter
with his Bangladesh counterpart. It really does not matter whether the gas is imported by
the NOC or by private parties. What is important is that gas must begin to flow in from
Bangladesh. The government must address itself to redressing the woes of consumers.
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