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Kathmandu Friday August 17, 2001 Bhadra 01, 2058.
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Rice price reduced in Rolpa
Post Report
ROLPA, Aug 16 - The Food Management
Committee, Rolpa has reduced the price of nearly two thousand quintals of rice transported
to the district about two years ago.
"Rice was brought here about two or
three years ago but even a little quantity of rice failed to reach the famine-stricken
people in the district. Therefore the price has been reduced" said chairman of Food
Management Committee and DDC official Amrit Bahadur Gharti.
"People in the remote villages are
affected by famine on the one hand while rice is being dumped in the storehouse here on
the other," Gharti said.
A total of 2,733 quintals of rice was in
stock in this office to ward off the famine in this highly remote hilly district of Rolpa
located in the mid-western region in the Fiscal Year 1999-2000, but only 545 quintals of
rice was sold by the end of the Fiscal Year 2000-2001.
As the rice was not sold, the price has been
adjusted three times. Initially, the price was fixed at Rs 1,700 per quintal, then Rs
1,400 per kilogram and now the price has been fixed at Rs 1,200 per quintal.
Although villages are affected by acute
famine and they have sold even their poultry and cattle to buy foodgrain, people have a
wrong notion that it is not good to use government goods. Therefore, famine is not felt
here, said DDC vice-president and member of the Food Management Committee Dal Bir Pun.
Winter crops were badly affected by drought
while the summer crops were damaged by excessive rainfall in the district last year.
The government rice costs Rs 12 per kilogram in
the district headquarters but it costs Rs 20 to Rs 25 per kilogram in the villages. The
main reason for not buying the government rice is the pressure from the Maoists. Many
villagers say that the government facilities are getting out of their reach due to the
Maoist insurgents.
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