With contractors rejecting all tenders called by NFC, distribution of the rice has been held up and as a result locals, who suffer yearly from scarcity of food, have been victimized harshly, informed department chief of NFC, Prem Narayan Bhandari.[break]
NFC has already published the tender notice for a fourth time but contractors have rejected the proposal, saying the transport rates offered were too low.
“Among the 20 VDCs in the district, five are in dire need of food supplies.We had planned to distributed at least one quintal in each VDC but the process has not started due to contractors´ dissatisfaction over transport rates,” said Bhandari. Hukam, Maikot, Taksera, Kol and Jang are among the hard-hit VDCs of the district.
All 20 VDCs, where the rice should have reached, have been designated as food insecure because of the low crop harvest this year. “Crop production was similarly low last year. This year things can be worse if food supplies are not reached to the locals soon,” said Bhandari.
According to Kul Prasad Adhikari, chief of Rukum District Agriculture Development Office, the late arrival of the monsoon rains had damaged around 50 percent of the crops in the district. However, paddy production has increased by 20 percent, he informed.
“The crop output in the food scarcity VDCs can feed the locals for only three months of the year and the rest of the year they have to managed things somehow or be assisted with food supplies,” said Adhikari.
Densely populated by dalits and indigenous people, scarcity of food is a regular phenomenon in the district, informed Adhikari.
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