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Hotels and tourism-related businesses in Birgunj are on the verge of collapsing after tourists stopped coming to the town following the border’s partial closure to prevent the import of Covid-19.

The government sealed the border in March 2020 following a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the contagious disease. Although cargo vehicles and pedestrians are allowed to cross the border, Indian vehicles carrying tourists haven’t been allowed in for over a year and half.

“Tourism-related businesses in the Birgunj area have incurred losses of around Rs 1.5 billion after Indian tourists stopped coming,” says Hari Pant, president of the Hotel and Tourism Entrepreneurs Association, Birgunj.

"During the first wave of Covid-19, the industry lost around Rs 500 million. During the second wave, the total loss jumped to over Rs 1 billion." According to Pant, there are more than 70 hotels in operation in Birgunj and 10 more are being built. He says 60 to 80 percent of the customers and tourists who stay in hotels in the Birgunj area are Indians. "Four-five hotels in the bus park area have already been closed and some are preparing to shut," he says, adding that hotels in Birgunj are operating at 25 percent capacity.

Kuber Karki, a member of the association, says 60 percent of hotel workers lost their jobs due to the inability of hotels to operate at full capacity. "We have been unable to pay house rent as well as worker allowances and salaries," he says. Interest on loans and electricity bills are also increasing.

Karki, who runs Hotel Kumu Palace on Link Road, says he will have no choice but to close his hotel if the situation remains unchanged.

Hoteliers have been demanding that the Birgunj border crossing be fully opened as the infection rates have declined across the country, including in Birgunj. The association says the government has ignored their demands.

The association had handed over a memorandum to Parsa’s District Administration Office as well as District Covid Crisis Management Center on June 25 asking for permission to operate hotels, lodges and party palaces in Birgunj. These establishments later opened. Now the association is preparing to meet the prime minister and hand over another memorandum on the border.

A 20-minute documentary has been prepared about the impact of the epidemic and the closure of the border checkpoint on the hotel and tourism businesses in Birgunj, says Madhav Basnet, general secretary of the association.

Rachendra Thapa, manager at country Inn Hotel, says, "Thousands of freight vehicles as well as thousands of Nepali nationals cross over from India via Birgunj every day and they supposedly don’t bring Covid-19. But Indian tourists do? What are they thinking?"

Islami Sangh Nepal, a Mus­lim umbrella organization founded in 1985, launched a 10-day campaign against the dowry system that is deeply rooted in the Madhesi soci­ety. This campaign, which will be run in all eight districts of Province 2, started with a rally in Birgunj on Dec 16.“In Islam religion, there is no custom of giving dowry to the groom. The groom has to actually give money and property to the bride party,” said Jelisha Suman, a Mus­lim woman who was taking part in the rally. “However, in recent years, Muslims have started exchanging dowries by copying ill practices of other communities.” Another par­ticipant in the road rally said, “We, Muslim women and girls, have taken to the streets to fight this evil system.”

Different types of aware­ness programs will be held in the 10-day campaign.

Islami Sangh Parsa chapter President Jamil Akhtar, also a participant in the demonstra­tion, said, “In our religion it is thought Allah gets angry just hearing the word ‘dowry’. It is considered haram. If someone takes dowry, they are no lon­ger Muslims. However, Muslim people are now demanding millions of rupees during mar­riage of their sons.”

President Akhtar informed that different types of aware­ness programs will be held in the 10-day campaign.

“This dowry system that is spreading like an epidemic has been destroying lives of women. When a girl is born into a household, she is seen as a liability,” said Mujtuwa Ansari, a Muslim leader. He added, “Muslim community is against such practices. Sup­port from other communities and religions is also necessary for success of this campaign.”

According to 2011 census, Muslims comprise 4.39 per­cent of national population of 26.49 million, most them living in the Tarai belt.

 Padman’ brings smiles to school girls

 Birgunj : “Earlier, when we had our periods, we used to skip school for 4-5 days,” said Puja Kumari Chauhan, a Grade X student at Parsa’s Ram Charitra Bhagat Sec­ondary School. “If we sud­denly got our period in school, we would tell our teacher that we were sick and go home.”

Then along came Mad­hav Prasad Bhandari. He has been distributing free sanitary pads in Parsa’s rural areas after he heard that local girls missed school during their peri­ods. He works via Rose Bahini Sirjansil Mahila Samaj, of which he is a founder. “When I heard about girls missing schools on the radio, I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” says Bhandari.

Chauhan, the Grade X student, says she is happy she no longer has to miss school.

Bhandari plans to dis­tribute sanitary pads in 150 schools in rural areas of the district. He has already provided free sanitary pads in commu­nity schools of Rolpa, Kanchanpur, Bhojpur, Dang, Surkhet, Banke, Kailali, Nawalparasi and Dhading districts.

He says he will work with local NGOs to ensure that these girls never run out of sanitary napkins.

Betting worth tens of millions rupees is tak­ing place every day in Birgunj, an import­ant commercial hub in Nepal’s central plains, in relation to the ongoing Indian Pre­mier League (IPL) cricket tournament. The ille­gal betting takes place openly during each and every IPL match. Bettors include not just young cricket fans, but also industrialists, smugglers, politicians and contractors. In fact, the betting market is so vibrant that offices have been set up secretly to carry out the illicit trade. According to a businessman from Adarshanagar who bets regularly on IPL matches, people have rented rooms in his neighborhood and other parts of the town and turned them into betting joints.

A person whose job is to take bets and pay out money to winners is known as a book­maker, or a bookie for short. In Birgunj, they are referred to as dalals (middle-men). From what I could gather from betters who regularly place big bets with these bookmakers, the main betting ring operates out of Jaipur, Rajasthan. This ring has apparently hired six local bookies in Birgunj.

The modus operandi

The bookies in Birgunj deliver the informa­tion about the wager amount to the agents in Jaipur via their phones. The bookies are also responsible for paying out money to the win­ners and sending cash deposited by the losers to Jaipur. For this job, the bookies receive a cer­tain percentage cut as commission. Here they pocket 20 percent of the total stake.

For every IPL match, a bookie makes Rs 1.5 to 2 million. A person gets to become a bookie only after he deposits a minimum of 2 to 2.5 mil­lion Indian rupees with the Jaipur’s betting ring.

Every bookie in Birgunj collects wagers up to Rs 5 million for a single match. Bets are placed on different categories—the winning team, the runs scored in a particular over, total runs and wickets taken by individual players, etc.

“Only if the bookies have your number saved in their mobile will they take your call. And they don’t entertain bets lower than Rs 10,000. I’d placed a bet of Rs 20,000 on the opening match in favor of the Mumbai Indians, but I lost,” says one cricket fan—and an IPL bettor—from Murli-Sripur. But members of large business-in­dustrial houses and smugglers are known to bet up to Rs 2 million on a single match.

Uninformed police

Despite the scale of the daily transactions, the police is apparently unaware of the illegal betting. DSP Rajan Limbu, spokesperson for Parsa Police, pleaded ignorance about the betting scene in Birgunj. “It’s the first time I’m hearing about IPL betting. We’ll now investigate the matter,” says Limbu.

DSP Limbu’s profession of ignorance not­withstanding, the police had arrested five members of a betting ring with a large sum of money from Adarshanagar in Birgunj during the 2015 IPL.