– Subhanu Acharya

Rajesh Maharjan of Lalitpur Metropolitan City-10 has been looking for face masks and sanitiser in the market for many days, but has not managed to get them as the coronavirus fear grips the world and the country goes into lockdown against this pandemic.

He said he has been washing his hands with soap and urging members of his family to do the same to keep safe from the deadly virus.

"I had heard that our metropolis was going to manufacture sanitiser and masks, and distribute them to the city people. I went looking for these things in the market, but there is neither mask nor sanitiser. May be it is only for the sake of publicity," he said.

Rakesh Chitrakar, a resident of Lalitpur Metropolitan City -16, also rued that he too has not been able to get hold of neither face mask nor sanitiser whenever he went to the retail store to buy these items.

"I think this talk of the metropolis itself producing and distributing face masks and sanitiser is only the publicity stunt of the metropolis. I have not been able to get these things in the market. The municipality authorities have not felt the difficulty the locals have been facing in such adverse situation," he said.

He added that the children quite often went out of home to play in the courtyard and it would have been easier had sanitiser been made easily available rather than asking the children to wash their hands with soap every time when there is scarcity of water at home.

Gyan Laxmi Maharjan of Lalitpur Metropolitan City-21 said she daily used spirit as sanitiser and washed her hands with soap after hearing the shortage of sanitiser in the market. "Neither there is sanitiser nor face mask in the market. How can we be safe from coronavirus when we go out of the house to buy essential goods. I was excited when I saw the announcement in the TV that our metropolis was going to distribute sanitiser and masks. Now, I feel that that announcement was only a publicity," she expressed her annoyance.

Although the metropolis had trained 60 women, including two women from every ward of the metropolis, from March 9 to 12 on making face mask, there is shortage of face mask in the market. The metropolis also trained 60 people on producing sanitiser as well. But the denizens of the metropolis have not been able to get these products at this time of dire need.

However, Lalitpur Metropolitan City social development committee coordinator Dinesh Karki, said they have been supplying sanitiser at some places in every ward of the metropolis and at the metropolis’ secretariat. The Social Welfare Division at the metropolis had produced around 500 litres sanitiser some days back.

"We said we are going to manufacture masks and sanitiser but have not been able to bring the raw materials required for this due to the lockdown. So, the metropolis has not been able to produce the required quantity of these products for lack of shortage of raw materials," Karki explained about the municipality’s predicament.