Series of strikes and bandas has hit hard handicraft businesses in Morang. Strike enforcers have been forcefully closing stores.

 

“The banda enforcers vandalized my shop. This was before I could sell anything,” 21-year old Pappu Shah of Bhatti Mod, Biratnagar, said. “I have not been able to pay the rent for my shop space on time.”

 

He has to pay Rs18,000 per month in rent for the store space and Rs5,000 monthly for go-down. He said the only respite for him was the house owner had not followed up for the rents, considering the situation.

 

Since Shah needs to sustain on daily earnings, he has been taking risk and opening his shop. “I open half shutter. However, people are not coming to buy,” he said, adding the time to make handicraft products for the Chhat festival has already started, but the strikes and bandas have taken a toll on then business. During this time

 

of the year, traders import products from India targeting the festive season. With vehicles not

 

plying on roads, the imports

 

have remained stranded at the border points.

 

During normal days, Shah earns up to Rs3,000 per day. “Since one and half weeks, I am hardly making Rs1,000 a day,” he said.

 

Dev Narayan Baniya, another handicraft seller, says has been hardly selling items worth Rs500 a day. During normal times, he said his sales stand at Rs4,000 to Rs8,000 a day. “This strike has caused a big loss,” he said. “The government should try to normalise this situation at the possible earliest.”