Remote Chumanubri residents pay up to Rs 200 for salt

Residents of the remote northern villages of Gorkha's Chumanubri Rural Municipality are paying far more than market rates for salt, with a packet costing up to Rs 200 in some settlements. In the market, salt sells for Rs 30 to Rs 35 a kilogram, according to a report by the national news agency RSS, which Nagarik News, Setopati and Ratopati carried. With no road beyond Pangsing, the cost of carrying goods up the valley is the main reason.

The Salt Trading Corporation has set its prices at Rs 26 a kilogram for iodized salt, Rs 20 for New Shakti salt and Rs 9 for Bhanu salt, the report said. In Chumanubri's settlements, however, a packet of iodized salt costs between Rs 60 and Rs 200, and the more remote the village, the higher the price.

The cost of isolation

Vehicles reach only Pangsing, in ward 3; above it, mules are the main way to move food. In Samagaun and Samdo, the last settlements in the Manaslu area near the Tibetan border, a packet of iodized salt costs Rs 200. Local resident Nima Dorje said a packet that sells for Rs 30 in the lower areas costs Rs 100 in freight alone to bring from Pangsing to Samdo. The cost of carrying it from Arughat and Arkhet to Pangsing is separate, he said, and once a shopkeeper adds Rs 5 to Rs 10 in profit, the price reaches Rs 200. Birbahadur Lama, a businessman in Samagaun, said freight to Samagaun and Samdo is Rs 100 a kilogram after a three-day walk.

Prices elsewhere in the municipality follow the freight rate. In Lho village in ward 2, where freight is Rs 80 a kilogram, a packet costs Rs 150. In Bihi in ward 5, local resident Kalden Chhewang said a packet costs Rs 100 in winter, when freight from Pangsing is Rs 25 a kilogram; in the monsoon it can reach Rs 70 a kilogram, and prices rise accordingly. Residents of Chhule and Nile, the last settlements of the Chum valley, pay Rs 180 to Rs 200 a packet, with freight of up to Rs 60 a kilogram. A packet costs Rs 150 in the villages of Chhekampar and Rs 100 in Chumling (ward 6), and in Prok (ward 4) the price runs from Rs 100 to Rs 170 depending on freight. Even in Philim, the municipality's centre, which the road reaches, local resident Kumari Gurung said a packet that costs Rs 30 elsewhere sells for Rs 60.

Subsidy limitations

The government runs a transport subsidy programme to supply salt at concessional rates to residents of remote Himalayan areas, and the Salt Trading Corporation manages it. Sagar Sherchan, the corporation's Gandaki Province chief, said it has sent 350 quintals of iodized salt to Sirdibas in northern Gorkha this fiscal year, and that the government pays the transport costs of the contractor who carries it from Pokhara to Sirdibas.

But the subsidized salt has not reached all the remote settlements. Local resident Pasang Phunjo Lama said it is mostly consumed in the Sirdibas area. The government pays for transport as far as Jagat, he said, and from there it takes four days to reach Samagaun and Samdo and three to reach Chhekampar, so residents have to pay the high freight charges.

Road access

The Nepali Army has been given the job of opening a road track from Hawadanda to the Larke pass on the Chinese border, under the Benighat-Arughat-Larke road, and has opened a track as far as Pewa, a little above Philim. A shortage of budget and uncertain resources have kept construction from picking up speed, the report said. Apart from ward 3 (Sirdibas), the municipality's other six wards remain far from the road network.