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On Thursday, September 3, the food delivery boys were getting ready for a busy day ahead after a week under strict lockdown. Then they got the dreaded message. Unlike what was being reported, they wouldn’t, after all, be able to make deliveries. To be able to do, they now learned, they had to get the PCR test done, which comes Rs 4,400 a pop. And even if they got the test done, it would be at least three days before they got the report. 

The government has offered next to no support for the restaurants and food delivery services. Instead, the police constantly harass them. On Aug 27, over 90 food delivery service owners and employees were arrested from various places in Kathmandu. This has discouraged established companies, but also put a big dent in the confidence of those starting out in the business.

Anita Timsina, founder of Fooddole, a Kathmandu-based food delivery service started a year ago, shares the bitter experience of her team-members being apprehended. “The way we were picked up without a warrant, it no longer felt like we were living in a democratic country,” she reminisces. Police arrested both office and field staff at Fooddole. Timsina says the police behaved with her staff as if they were criminals. She now wonders if delivering food really is a crime in Nepal.

Komal Niraula, co-founder at One-Eleven, another Kathmandu-based food delivery service started a year ago, speaks of how his startup has already had to shift to a cheaper office. They have also cut production and cut down on deliveries in light of reduced income. 

When he heard about the arrests, Niraula says he felt thoroughly discouraged as a professional. “I am particularly dissatisfied with the prohibition on the delivery of groceries. Moreover, it is not clear who is allowed to do business and who is not,” he adds. 

Sujan Rai, co-founder at Sanohaat, a food delivery service that opened up in June in Jhapa district of Eastern Nepal, says food delivery services are facing an existential crisis. “Forget rewarding us for making people’s lives easier by delivering food, grocery, and other essential stuff to their doorsteps; the government is instead arresting us,” he sighs. Nonetheless, he agrees that it is up to business-owners to ensure their services fully comply with safety measures.

Likewise, Nabin Raj Acharya, Managing Director at Mazzako Food, a Pokhara-based food and local grocery delivery service, feels highly insecure these days.

Mazzako Food had only started its services a month ago after being closed for almost three years. He says online delivery of food items with safety measures and regular monitoring is more secure than people visiting stores individually. 

“By the looks of things, the food delivery business is on the verge of collapse considering how much we have invested in it, often by taking out huge loans. And the government, instead of helping us, seems intent on making our lives harder,” he says. 

All food delivery personnel APEX talked to claimed they were following all necessary health protocols and safety measures. They are regularly taking the body temperature of staffs, making them use masks and hand sanitizers, and taking every precaution to minimize chances of infection.

So what was the reason behind the recent police action in Kathmandu? Spokesperson of the Metropolitan Police Office, SSP Sushil Kumar Yadav, says the police only acted on the administration’s directive. “Moreover, food delivery is not among essential services,” he adds.

Madhawa village in Manara Siswa-10 of Mahottari district lies bang on the Nepal-India border. Half the houses here are in Nepal and the other half in India. The villagers sometimes try to cross the border under the pretext of cutting grass or gathering firewood. The Armed Police Force (APF) personnel stationed at the border checkpoints during the Covid-19 epidemic keep a close watch over them. The Covid-19 infection rate in the village is low due to strict surveillance.

In addition to Madhava, dozens of villages in the eight districts of Province 2, make the 464-km open border. The province has 246 major and minor border checkpoints. AFP Border Outposts (BOPs) have been set up in 53 places to stop cross-border movement. Despite the large number of infections in India, people have been travelling to and fro, making use of the open border. To stop this, security personnel have been patrolling border areas night and day.

The deployed security personnel have not gotten proper masks and sanitizers. No other health equipment is available as well. They have been carrying out their responsibilities by wearing normal masks, goggles, and temporary gloves.

The east-west border area in Siraha, where more than 400 APF personnel are deployed, is 46.5 km-long. BOPs had been up in seven places before the pandemic broke out. During the pandemic, ‘forward observation bases’ were added in five other places. But these bases are only temporary tents without even basic amenities. 

New units have been added in Abhaynagar of Bhagwanpur Municipality, Jhajhapatti of Nawarajpur Municipality, Kusandi, and Budhaura of Siraha Municipality from where the armed police patrol the border.

DSP Mohana Niraula, also the spokesperson of the APF No. 7 Battalion in Hekwa Siraha, says an additional team under the command of the APF Deputy Inspector has been deployed. “In early days, arrangements were made to sleep in tents and go to the nearby base camp for meals,” Niraula adds.

In the PCR tests on 410 armed police personnel deployed on border patrols last month, six came out positive. Niraula informs all six were discharged on August 25 after making full recovery. Out of seven BOPs, only the one in Itatar-4 has its own building. The remaining six are either rented or shared with government offices.

The APF has launched a traffic control program at the border and awareness programs in the villages. DIG Krishna Bhakta Bramhacharya of the AFP Office in Mahottari informs of the urgent need to make people aware and make them ready to fight the pandemic.

“We are trying to spread awareness about mandatory health check-ups for people who have just travelled from India or other countries and are secretly living in our villages and communities,” says DIG Brahmacharya.

The border police are also trying to identify the infected by forming a border monitoring group with the involvement of local people’s representatives.

They are young, they are energetic, they are groovy, they are “Chakachak”. Formed in early 2018, Chakachak is a one-of-its-kind Nepali band that records original music in the ‘nu-metal/rap-hardrock’ genre. Band members, aged 21-40, exude an enormous amount of energy not only in their recordings and music videos, but also in live performances. Chakachak stages a spectacle every time it is on stage, and as the audience, you can do nothing but bang your heads to its infectiously groovy music.

Two brothers, Biraj (guitars) and Bikrant Singh Thapa (drums), collaborate with Ashutosh ‘Multi’ Pandey (vocals), Sabeen Shrestha (bass), and DJ Vital on turntables, to form Chakachak. Inspired by international artists like ‘Rage Against the Machine’, ‘Limp Bizkit’, ‘Fever 333’, ‘Turnstile’, and our very own ‘Tumbleweed Inc.’, to name a few, Chakachak is all about spreading positive energy and vibe to its listeners, say band members.

“Chakachak, in Nepali, stands for positive hope/energy. We found this word representative of what we wanted to portray through our music,” says Biraj, the guitarist. “We used to play with different underground bands before this and connected through the local underground scene. We got together just to play this kind of music.” DJ Vital, the oldest band member, and a popular music producer in Nepal’s EDM circuit, was the final addition.

The band released its eponymous debut album in 2019 and has since been causing tremors in the local music scene. The audience has swiftly picked up songs like “Sabda,” “Damadol”, and “Netapal”. Chakachak’s latest music video “Gatibidhi” featuring rapper “5:55” has pushed it further into the limelight, from where its visibility is spreading to a larger audience.

But Chakachak is not here to attempt to ‘make a difference’. Rather, it wants to remain true to its music, and spread positivity with it. “We try to express ourselves in the most authentic and truthful way possible. We think speaking the truth is the seed for making a difference,” Biraj says. The band’s honesty and passion for its art can be felt in its lyrics and music. It speaks about what’s wrong in the society, creating awareness, and even warns those abusing authority, even while it sounds aggressively groovy at all times.

Usual hindrances that every band faces—personal commitments issues, lack of finances—does slow the band’s progress at times, but the highly committed band members pool their resources and manage time to take the music forward. The independent band has self-sponsored all of its audio and visual productions, without letting anything come between it music and its audience.

Even the Covid-19 lockdown since March has not ebbed its enthusiasm. “We do miss the energy of performing onstage and also hanging out with our friends, but we have been busy writing new material even during the lockdown,” Biraj informs. The band released music videos of its songs “Gatibidhi” and “Wake-up” during the lockdown and already has another music video in the pipeline. Still, live shows and concert tours are what the band looks forward to when the pandemic is over.

Comparatively a new entry in Nepali music, Chakachak is one of those bands that have made an impact within a short time. “We have been blessed with the most amazing response so far and are always grateful to our audience, friends and seniors,” Biraj says about their acceptance in the local music scene. “The family is getting bigger and stronger.”

Six people lost their lives in a landslide at Aulgurta, Nalgad municipality-12 of Jajarkot district. The incident eight years ago put the whole settlement at risk. A decision was made to immediately relocate 60 households to safer places, and yet nothing was done. This year, the settlement is in a danger of another flooding.

Five years ago, three people were killed in a landslide in the model Badi settlement in Dailekh district headquarters. Many houses collapsed. Local politicians promised to relocate the settlement soon. Again, their promises came to nothing. The 52 houses in this settlement are still at high risk damage from landslides.

Landslides take place every year in Haudi, Shubhakalika rural municipality of Kalikot too, endangering its 176 households. Another 25 houses have already been destroyed.

Dozens of settlements in Karnali region are at high risk of landslide. This year, landslides in Jajarkot, Kalikot and Rukum West have caused severe damage to life and property. The various plans that have been drafted, from the district to the central level, are again limited to paper.

According to local Red Cross activist Govinda Acharya, there is a tendency to make ambitious plans at the time of disasters, but then these plans are quickly forgotten.

Acharya rues lack of seriousness in relocating endangered settlements, resulting in the loss of precious lives. Khadananda Chaulagain, chairman of Shubhakalika rural municipality in Kalikot, complains that the limited budget he gets is insufficient to resettle homes.

Karnali MP Ganesh Prasad Singh, elected from Jajarkot, is currently in Kathmandu to knock on the doors of Singha Durbar. He says the problems of the landslide affected people were ignored. A landslide had killed 14 people in Barekot last July.

The land there is now fragmented, the village itself at high risk of landslides. MP Singh has come to Kathmandu to draw the attention of the federal government even as the locals have left their homes and settled in open fields. “I have come to Kathmandu carrying the decision of the local and state governments to relocate the settlements,” Singh says. “If these villages are not shifted, another disaster looms.”

The Karnali state government has an integrated settlement program for the relocation of endangered settlements, and the budget for it was set aside in the previous fiscal.

Karnali Province Chief Minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi says managing land for resettlement has been the main difficulty. “The local level bodies have been unable to arrange for the required land. At other places, the locals have refused to be relocated.”

The state government had allocated around Rs 500 million for the integrated settlement development program last fiscal, Shahi informs. The budget, however, was frozen due to lack progress. Shahi says the program has been given continuity in the current fiscal and will be implemented in Kalikot, Jajarkot, and Mugu districts after a detailed study.