With soaring prices due to Maoist blockades, people are finding it very hard to subsist in Nepal.

From what I hear almost all daily commodities are getting more and more expensive, if not totally unavailable. The cooking gas is almost impossible to get. Price of meat and vegetables have skyrocketed. News of the situation outside of Kathmandu valley is spotty so one can imagine it to be only worse.

I worry about my family back home. We are just middle class family with not much of weath to depend on, so this kind of inflation hits hard. I am sure there are many here in Sajha who are like me (us), how are your families coping?

In this context, here's an article from today's daily.

The Kathmandu Post >> Editorial
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Short supply

Prices of essential commodities since the Maoists began to disrupt the free movement of motor vehicles on highways to Kathmandu Valley have increased dramatically in the capital. Parts of eastern and western regions of the country remain paralyzed following the Maoist road blockade. The Maoists have not let even an ambulance ply on the road. They have torched ambulances, trucks and microbuses in order to disrupt the vehicular movement. As a result, the flow of essential goods into the capital has reduced.

Prithvi Highway?the artery line of the capital city?has witnessed a decline in vehicular movements since February 12, the day the Maoists defiantly imposed the blockade. Escorts provided by security forces to passenger buses and some cargo trucks come as a measure of compromised comfort in an abnormal situation. The government has been providing security for the vehicles plying between the capital, and the cities and towns outside the valley. With the imposition of the blockade, around 300 vehicles enter and leave the capital everyday.

Two of the country?s largest sugar plants?Biratnagar and Siraha?have closed down because of the shortage of raw materials. Thousands of farmers have not been able to sell sugarcane because of the Maoist-imposed blockade. Valuable farm produce has gone to waste.

Similarly, hundreds of people, especially daily wage earners, have become jobless. And Kathmandu seems to be the only city, which has seen normalcy in terms of public life and economic activity. The government must take immediate measures to fill the shortage of essential goods, before panic buying and unhealthy price war spin out of control.

Prices of tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, apple and grapes have already shot up. Vegetables produced within the valley cannot meet the demand of its denizens. The number of trucks, which ferried fruits to the valley everyday, has come down to three. Cooking gas has been in short supply ever since Nepal Oil Corporation hiked the gas price.

How long will such a situation of uncertainty go on? The government must supply essential commodities uninterruptedly to meet the needs of the people. Providing essential commodities to the people is as important as maintaining law and order, and restoring peace.

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Please post your comments and experiences.

Anybody?