September 6: The government decided on July 9 to allow public vehicles to operate in short routes within their respective districts after easing the nearly four-months lockdown restriction on transportation. The transport entrepreneurs started their business after repairing their vehicles. However, in less than one month, the government imposed prohibitory orders in various districts sending the vehicles back to the garages.

Although other countries have gradually resumed public transportation by following safety protocols, Nepal has not prepared any work plan to this end.

Most of the countries have eased the lockdown restrictions but Nepal has only changed the definition of lockdown just like transferring ‘an old wine into a new bottle’. In fact, the prohibitory order seems to be more strict than the lockdown imposed in the initial stage to curb the spread of coronavirus.

According to the Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE), there are around 300,000 public vehicles and more than 60,000 cargo vehicles registered in Nepal. The federation says around 1 million people have got direct employment from this sector. Around 600,000 drivers and helpers who make a living by earning daily wages are at the receiving end since the last five months due to the closure of this sector, says Yogendra Nath Karmacharya, chairman of FNNTE.

He claimed that more than 1 million persons in this sector have lost their jobs while the government has shown little interest to resume public transportation under the influence of middlemen.

“Other countries have gradually reopened public transportation but our government isn’t clear resuming the service here. The government is not serious about the problems faced by the public,” he said.

He said that thousands of people entered Kathmandu in private vehicles by paying heavy price after the government lifted the lockdown more than a month ago. However, the government did not seem concerned about resuming long-distance service by preparing necessary guidelines and regulations.

“The government’s concept that coronavirus will spread through black number plate and not the red one is flawed,” he added.