Noodles, biscuits worth Rs 48m purchased

KATHMANDU, April 5: The government has purchased noodles and biscuits worth Rs 48 million from different manufacturers so far to distribute them as relief material for earthquake victims in different parts of the country.

Ministry of Industry (MoI) purchased biscuits and noodles from the manufactures at factory gate price.According to officials, Smart Foods and Snacks, Jagadamba Food, CG Foods and Pokhara Noodles have delivered 91,745 cartoons of noodles worth Rs 28.9 million to different government agencies. Similarly, Nebico Biscuit Company, Pashupati Biscuits Industry, Pokhara Foods, Karmacharya Foods and Asian Biscuit & Confectionery P have supplied 32,635 cartons worth Rs 19.1 million. The government has also purchased beaten rice from different mills.

The government decided to purchase noodles, biscuits and beaten rice and distribute them to earthquake victims taking into consideration possible shortage of food commodity and to discourage black-marketing after the earthquake.

Government officials said the manufactures would be paid within couple of weeks.

Following the devastating earthquake, the government had started purchasing noodles and biscuits with the target of collecting 200 tons of biscuits and 100,000 cartoons of noodles. Each carton has 3- 45 packets of noodles depending on the weight.

Dinesh Ghimire, joint secretary of MoI, said that they would now stop buying food commodities like noodles and biscuits as earthquake survivors have demanded rice, beaten rice and other food commodities.

The government has been distributing food grains and other food commodities from the stock of Salt Trading Corporation and Nepal Food Corporation.

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