You can close down the far-west for any reason at all these days. Kailali saw a three-day banda when armed police confiscated 107 sacks of smuggled fertiliser. Other obscure reasons for bandas and chakkajams include problems with electricity, a sugarcane farmer not getting paid by the sugar mill, and a man being arrested for illegal felling.

Residents of Baitadi's Patan called a two-week banda because they wanted government offices displaced during the insurgency reinstated. The Maoists call strikes for every little reason, and it has become common practice for highway accident victims to close down the Rajmarg to claim compensation.

Free Masuriya kamaiyas called a chakkajam demanding land and forcibly held assistant director of the National Human Rights Commission in Dhangadi, Koshraj Neupane and a group of journalists for close to an hour. One organiser said: "We must hold these people, only then will the government feel pressure to listen to our demands."

In another case half-a-dozen VDCs in Kailali closed down the Lamki-Chisapani region of the East-West highway because there was no water in their canals. Farmers in Tikapur also stopped receiving water and shut down the highway. The government gave them tools to dig canals and Rs 250,000 in exchange for lifting the banda.

The government remains a spectator. Government influence on the highways is zero, and the police seem totally unconcerned by these frequent closures. Lawlessness is rife. The newspapers and radio here have even stopped carrying news of shutdowns. Only banda cancellations and highway openings make news.

These frequent shutdowns make travel an uncertain, tedious, and sometimes dangerous undertaking. Banda organisers don't even let through media people, human rights workers, or ambulances. These repeated closures are taking a huge toll on the travel and transport industry. Over 50 businessmen have been forced into bankruptcy and this number is likely to double. Businessman Balram Poudel says, "I couldn't pay the instalments on my bus and so had to sell it for extremely cheap." Larger companies are also affected-the Far-Western Bus and Mini-bus Industry Committee owned 325 vehicles two years ago, this number is down to 221.