It was obvious on a recent trip through the Rapti Zone and Salyan district what everyday life has come down to for Nepalis in the mid-west: little to eat, constant fear and the sounds of war.

The state of emergency may be over, but the district headquarters of Khalanga Bazar shuts down by six in the evening even though the curfew is not till eight. The people stop moving about to avoid questioning and harassment by security officials.

There are food shortages everywhere. There are blockades and checkpoints by both sides. The security forces have increased their sweeps against Maoist strongholds north in Rolpa and Rukum. For their part, the Maoists have killed local political workers, teachers and ordinary citizens. There have been arrests and detentions, but also abductions.

And in the villages, there is the Maoist curfew. The rebels declared their indefinite curfew in Salyan district on 2 September. Unlike the government, they do not announce times. Curfew rules are simple: no one is allowed to leave the village or come to the village without their permission. People disobey on pain of torture.

Then there are the twin spectres of detention and abduction. The officiating chairman of Bajhakada VDC in Salyan district, Puskar Basnet of the UML, spent 40 days in the custody of security forces before being released on bail. On 11 September, he was taken away again, this time by the Maoists. He was released on payment of Rs 50,000 "bail". Political workers and ordinary people are being victimised by both sides. Some are people who have been detained while visiting the district headquarters to get their passports or citizenship certificates, others become targets because of past disputes.

The Maoists are now turning their attention to local politicians. They\'ve abducted former VDC representatives and imposed conditions for their release without actually charging them with any wrongdoing. The rebels have also been known to take local representatives into custody, saying that they want to audit the funds spent on local projects, but they free their captives only after ransoms of up to Rs 100,000 are paid.

Bhairab Shah, former chairman of Kalagaun VDC and UML worker Rudra Bir Khatri have been in Maoist custody for the past three months. They have also not freed many of the people abducted on 11 September, including Suganda Shah, chairman of the Salyan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Travel is so difficult, most people just stay put unless they have really urgent business. The security forces and government officials travel by helicopter. Bus journeys are regularly punctuated by roadside checks. Everyone knows the drill: get down, queue up, wait to have your baggage and body checked. If you have any printed material on you, allow for a longer delay.

On the road between Dang and Salyan, the Maoists have their own checks, to hunt out members of the security forces and others they might have a grudge against. Sometimes they hold up buses for hours and extort "donations" from the bus owners.

Similar checks have been set up on the trails leading to the district headquarters. People have been barred from travelling outside their villages; those who must leave do so only after applying for and getting permission from their "people\'s government", which then issues them a time-bound permit. The same is true for people wanting to come into a village. If you leave your village without permission, you cannot come back.

The Maoists have invented another way of immobilising people by declaring "area bandhi". This is slightly better than house arrest, as the person can move around in a small, strictly-delineated area. Those under area arrest are also likely to be detained, even harassed by the security forces sooner or later for being suspected Maoists. Political party workers and teachers that have not joined the Maoists remain under constant surveillance.

Unsurprisingly, the hardship, uncertainty and fear means that those who can afford it have fled. Which means the Maoists have lost the very people they could hit for extortion. There are also few banks to loot. This has made the Maoists desperate for funds, and the "revolutionary taxes" are now ruthlessly applied. You can\'t get away with a one- time donation anymore. Businessmen, teachers, government officials, contractors, traders-anyone the Maoists can find-all pay a monthly fee. In the absence of cash, the rebels will take clothes, utensils and food grains. In addition, they are also prone to imposing any number of miscellaneous charges on the people, and "fining" them for perceived transgressions. No one knows how the proceeds of these "collection drives" are used.

They have also have issued decrees asking VDC representatives to hand over all allowances they have received from the VDC after the announcement of "people\'s governments" in their areas. Former VDC heads and deputy heads must thus pay Rs 20,000- 50,000 to the Maoists. If they don\'t, they threaten to seize land and other assets. In order to meet party expenses, they\'ve even begun tilling village plots of those who\'ve fled.

Terrified of being caught in the crossfire, thousands of villagers have fled or migrated to India and other countries in search of work. Some years ago Lok Bahadur Khadka had fled from his village to district headquarters fearing abduction by Maoists. Shortly after that, the Maoists chased out his entire family of 11 from the village, taking over everything they had-land, cattle, house. There are over a dozen families who have been forced to leave their villages and live in the district headquarters, and others have already moved on to other districts. More than a hundred are members of political parties who have fled to Khalanga, and a similar number are likely living in Dang, Nepalganj or Kathmandu.

The sounds of the war are never far away. Both sides exchange fire almost every night. A bomb or two go off. The air is heavy with terror. The lines of people at the District Administration Offices waiting get their citizenship papers or passports have lengthened. In addition, anyone detained by the security forces must on their release report to the DAO. Anyone entering the office passes through three barbed-wire fences and is frisked. Except for occasional security patrols in the villages, there\'s no government presence there. Last week Maoists bombed the District Forest Office at Khalanga Bazar at 6:30pm-before the curfew.

Restrictions on the transport of food supplies to Salyan, Rukum and Rolpa also continue. There are many layers of bureaucratic control. First, one needs to get a "recommendation" from the FNCCI in Dang. That in turn must be approved by the district administration before goods can be dispatched to Salyan and beyond. Officials in Dang further approve this, but with reductions in the quantities approved by the DAO. Businesspeople and common people alike are feeling the pinch.

Underlying all these quotidian matters, the Maoists are also putting into play a broader basic strategy. They will launch major attacks only after they have had the time to regroup and re-arm, but their local militia continue to carry out day-to-day "actions". The recruitment of villagers is going apace as they strictly implement their "one household one guerrilla" policy. They like to say: "one household one member, one household one slogan (wall painting), one household one flag". And the government is nowhere.