By Our Correspondent

Bhairahawa, Sept. 30: With the onset of festival period, movements of Nepali migrant workers and shoppers have increased along the Nepal-India border entry point of Bhairahawa. Hordes of migrant workers returning home from India or other countries using the Sunauli border point has suddenly increased for the past few days.
In the meantime, a large number of Nepali consumers have also been crossing the border to purchase household items for Dashain.
‘There is a festival environment at the border point,” said Police Inspector Kamal Belbase of the Area Police Office in Belahiya. “With the help of local civil society and in collaboration with the Indian security, we have ensured an effective security for the people coming to Nepal or going to India via this border point,” said Belbase.
According to him, the number of Nepali migrant workers returning home from India has increased. The border point is now busy 24 hours due to the increased activity of the people returning Nepal as well as the locals going for shopping to the markets situated at the Indian side of the border, he added.
Hordes of migrant workers are coming home to celebrate Dashain with their families and children. People returning via the Sunauli border point include those working in Indian towns of New Delhi, Mumbai, Kashmir, Haryana, Bhopal, Kanpur, Lucknow, Madras, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and Allahabad among others. Meanwhile, a larger number of Nepali students, who are studying at various locations in India, are also returning home for Dashain.
A ‘Citizen’s Help Desk’ has also been established at the Bhairahawa Customs premises in order to facilitate the home-bound travellers.
The representatives of several organisations, such as from the Nepal Police, Traffic Police, Armed Police Force as well as various transportation entrepreneurs and local hotel entrepreneurs, local civil society, among others are extending their help to the Desk.
The Help Desk was established in order to stop the increased nuisances such as pickpocketing, drugging and making travellers unconscious to loot them, rickshaws and vehicles charging higher fares and the middle men taking commissions for the same.
Some other regular hassles faced by the incoming Nepalis or other travellers during the festival period at this border include the bus operators forcing the travellers to get on their respective buses, taking extra money in the name of arranging bus tickets but eventually leaving travellers stranded, selling the same seat of a bus to multiple passengers and unavailability of buses.
“Due to the activeness and effective coordination among all the institutions at the Help Desk, we have not had any cases of travellers being cheated or looted so far” said Inspector Belbase.
“Also, in order to prevent Nepali travellers from getting cheated on the Indian border side too, we conduct daily joint patrols up to Sunauli Bus Park, in collaboration with the Indian border security authorities,” he added.
In the past, the rickshaw pullers used to pull the returning travellers from the Buspark in Sunauli, taking advantage of the situation and charge even up to Rs. 400 in place of a normal fare that would cost only Rs. 30.
The police at Sunauli Buspark, the Indian Sunauli Custom’s staffs and the police post at the no-man’s-land area also used to cheat and extort money from the Nepali travellers in the name of checking. “Unlike in the past, I did not face unnecessary illegal extortion or hassles this time,” said one Anand Bhusal, a resident of Rupandehi Municipality-7, who returned home from New Delhi, India.
Locals from Bhairahawa, Butwal, Manigram, Mangalpur, Shankarnagar of Rupandehi district as well as those from Palpa, Syangja, Gulmi, Arghakhanchi and various parts of Nawalparasi such as Sunawal, Parasi, Bardaghat go across the border to Sunauli for festival shopping.
According to the Chief of Rupandehi District Police SP Hem Thapa, the district police has brought the festival-focused security plan in effect with the start of the festival season.