April 22: Traffic Police have been found creating obstruction in the transportation of the daily essential goods. This has affected the supply of essential goods since a month.

During the lockdown period, vehicles carrying daily essential goods like lentils, rice, vegetables, milk, fish, and meat were allowed to run smoothly from six in the morning to eight in the evening.

 “But the traffic police have allowed such vehicles to operate from 11am in the morning to 4pm in the day since the last one month,” says Durga Raj Shrestha, president of Nepal Distributors Association.

“It is not appropriate to obstruct vehicles of daily consumer goods. This is an injustice to the consumers,” he adds.

Citing that the heavy vehicles have added traffic problems on the roads, Traffic Police have not allowed to run heavy vehicles. This has compelled traders to transport goods on small vehicles. Small vehicles can contain less volume of goods and require additional workers. This in turn has led to an increase in the cost from 5 percent to 10 percent. According to the traders, the increase in cost is adjusted by  increasing the price of goods.

The Department of Commerce and Supply Management, which should have been involved in facilitating the supply system, is unaware about this obstruction. The Department is trying to avoid this issue saying it is the responsibility of the Department of Transport Management and Traffic Police.

Gogan Bahadur Hamal, Director General of DoTM, said the transporters should also support in traffic management and reducing overcrowding during COVID-19 pandemic.

Traffic Police however, are not ready to agree with the transporters. Shyam Adhikari, SP of Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, says vehicles carrying essential items like milk, medicine are allowed in the morning as well and vehicles carrying lentils, rice, noodles, biscuit are prohibited in the morning time and allowed in the day. He said that such provisions have been introduced to cope with the increasing traffic problems.