By NNN-Nepal News
Kathmandu : A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday ordered the Home Ministry to take all possible measures to check the ongoing killings and violence in Terai region and improve the overall security situation in the country.
Talking to reporters after the cabinet meeting held at Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar, government spokesperson and communication minister Krishna Mahara said the meeting decided to give ‘special direction’ to the Home Ministry to improve security.
The meeting was focused mainly on the government’s policies and programmes to be presented in the legislature parliament on Wednesday, he informed.
According to minister of state for water resources Gyanendra Karki, the cabinet meeting also took a decision on promotion of some senior police officers and civil servants.
Finance minister Dr Ram Saran Mahat said the cabinet would finalise its policy document by tomorrow and present it in the House on Wednesday.
The cabinet also decided to appoint deputy governor Krishna Bahadur Manadhar as the acting governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank with the suspension of Governor Dr Bijaya Nath Bhattarai after the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed graft case against him on Friday.
Meanwhile, normal life in eastern Terai districts has been badly hit by different strikes called by various agitating parties.
After Mechi-Kosi Truck Entrepreneurs’ Association called an indefinite strike demanding security to the trucks and buses plying on the highway a week ago, the vehicular movement in the East-west highway has come to a halt.
Due to the strike, thousands of passengers have been stranded at different places while supply of essential goods in eastern districts like Jhapa, Morang, Saptari, Siraha, Parsa and far-western towns like Mahendranagar and Dhangadhi and Nepalgunj in mid-west is also starting to suffer.
Reports say vegetables worth hundreds of thousands of rupees supplied daily to Kathmandu and other major towns around the country from Terai have also started to rot, causing losses worth millions of rupees to the farmers.
The agitating transporters say the strike will be in force for an indefinite period until their demands are met.
Although only truckers had initially imposed the strike, now other transport entrepreneurs have also expressed their solidarity to it and have halted bus services.
As there has been no efforts from the government side to open the highways, life in eastern Terai been thrown out of gear with shortage of essential commodities intensifying.
Reports coming in say that traffic is very minimal in Jhapa to Koshi road section of the East–West highway with only few motorbikes, ambulances, and private vehicles plying. Big vehicles have mostly stayed off the road.
There have been frequent strikes called by student wings of various political parties and the splinter groups of Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM), closing down market centers, educational institutions, factories and industries.Â