Students, professionals and businesspersons were greatly affected as educational institutions, offices, marketplaces and industrial entities were forcibly shut. [break]
However, the hardest hit of all were as usual the daily wage earners. Though the banda organizers let vehicles move on the roads from 5 p.m. onwards, the damage was already done, according to many people.
VOX-POP
Binita Rai, 16, laborer -- I make around Rs 400 a day working at a construction site in Balaju. My mother also works there. But she has not gone to work since a few days due to bad health. So it really worries me when my work also is affected. Today I did not go due to the banda. If I walk from here (Satungal) to Balaju, I will not be able to work properly. If it was just today, it would still be okay. But they enforce bandas repeatedly. That really affects our income.
Tara Magar, 25, housewife -- My daughter is not feeling well. And it was very important for me to visit a relative in Kirtipur. No vehicle was available, so what could be done. There is this bag and my daughter, and I have to carry both. I have now nearly reached home (Rabibhawan) somehow. But I worry about my daughter´s condition. I don´t know who called this banda and why. But it´s always people like us who suffer.
Padam Bahadur Shrestha, 52, porter -- I am from Sindhupalchowk. Village life is easy-going, but there is no way to earn any money. So I have been here in the capital since many years. I normally make Rs 200 to 300 a day. There is very little I can save and I have to send it home to my family. But now it seems the banda season has started. There was a banda just a week back I think. For us, banda means no work and no money. No money means no food. It goes like that.
Min Bahadur Shrestha, 43, gardener -- You know why our country is in such a mess? Because we are cowards. We know that such bandasanda has no meaning whatsoever. Yet, we meekly accept it whenever they call a banda. Tell me how many times have they called a banda for a genuine cause? It´s always for their own vested interests. But what about our rights? Can they force us to accept their point in that way? We all have become so irritated of these bandas and yet the organizers feel proud to enforce them. If they really want to pressure the government they need to do something which affects the targeted individuals, and not all the people.
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