Construction along Indo-Nepal border hit by traders strike

A month-long strike by traders of building materials has hit construction works in parts of India and Nepal, causing huge losses to both countries.

Nautanva (Uttar Pradesh), Aug 29 : A month-long strike by traders of building materials has hit construction works in parts of India and Nepal, causing huge losses to both countries.

Indian construction companies in Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj District, source a large part of their requirement of sand and stone-chips from Nepal.

Every day, 300-400 trucks loaded with sand and stone-chips arrive in the area, earning millions in royalty for the Nepal Government.

The traders have been on strike since July 16, after the Nepal Government tripled the royalty of raw material. Earlier, traders had to pay 100 rupees per cubic meter as royalty.

Sand and stone-chips businessmen blame crusher owners in Nepal for the hike.

"Nepal's 35 crusher owners want that all the raw material supplied should only profit them. And for this, they have engineered an increase in the rate of concrete from rupees 100 to 300 per cubic meters," said Nityanad Gupta, a sand-concrete businessman.

The businessmen threaten to continue the strike until the Nepal Government roll back the hike in royalty.

The strike has also hit Uttar Pradesh. The state used to recover millions of rupees every month as entry tax.

"Last year, we earned one crore rupees in the month of August. If the strike is still not called off then the sales tax department of the Uttar Pradesh Government would face another loss of one crore rupees for the month of August," said R. D. Choubey, Joint Commissioner of Sales Tax, Gorakhpur-Basti Region.

India and Nepal share a 1,747 kilometre-long open border, with businessmen from both countries trading in a variety of goods from across the border.

ANI