The deserted road to Birgunj, near the Indian Customs and Immigration offices at Raxaul border, on Wednesday
BETTIAH: Where traffic used to be a crawl, the road to the Nepalese metropolis of Birgunj, past the Indian Customs and Immigration offices at the Raxaul border, now lies deserted. The pandemic has taken away livelihoods. Hundreds of labourers from villages on our side who worked in factories dotting the Parsa-Bara industrial corridor in Nepal have been rendered jobless by the lockdown on both sides of the border, Mahesh Agarwal, Bihar President of the Seema Jagran Manch told TOI on Wednesday. Not only the daily wagers who trekked across the border but the other sectors of the economy, too, have been badly hit. Cross-border weddings have been hit, our roti-beti relationship with Nepal has been padlocked, Agarwal, whose grocery outlet on the border has seen an 80% fall in sales with cross-border customers locked out, rued.