Kathmandu, March 22
The government of Nepal wants to close the human movement via Nepal-India border points in its bid to control the novel coronavirus spread, but India has not agreed on the proposal yet.
Subsequently, many Nepali ministers want their government to talk to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi directly so as to end the stalemate. Nepal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, has been talking to Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, regarding the issue, but Kwatra has not given any clear response yet.
During a meeting of the high-level government committee formed to control the virus in Nepal, led by Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokharel, on Saturday evening, the ministers demanded that an appropriate decision be taken at the earliest. “If the border points remain open as they are currently now, suspending the international flights will be meaningless. We will continue to live at the risk of infection,” a minister told Onlinekhabar after the meeting. With Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s announcement, all the international flights coming to Nepal have been suspended from today till April 3.
“We want to close the border in the consent of India,” the minister says, “If the consent is not possible, let’s give India around 24 or 48 hours and lock the border from our sides.” The meeting, however, did not take any concrete decisions regarding the issue.
