National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

Hunger Strikes

Acute food shortage exacerbated by insecurity and rough terrain hits northwestern parts of the country

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

Hundreds of thousands of people living in northwestern and far-western region of Nepal are reeling under food shortage as the government agencies are unable to transport food due to rugged terrain and threats from the Maoists.

Even as thousands of people living in Bajura – a remote far-western district located some 700 miles west of Kathmandu – are suffering from food shortage, the government-owned Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) has been unable to transport over 6200 quintals of rice set aside for the district at its regional godown in Dhangadhi city. The rice could not be transported as the land route is said to be extremely dangerous with incidents of Maoists looting the food rife while the NFC does not have enough resources to transport it through the aerial route. After much exercise, the NFC did transport few quantity of rice (224 quintals) to Bajura on July 14 via helicopter. However, the rice was not distributed immediately because as Mukunda Pyakurel, a staffer of the NFC office in Martadi – the district headquarters – says, “We cannot distribute such a little quantity because it will be finished within one hour. Besides, we need to call the security people as there will be overcrowding.”

Another northwestern district of Humla, too, is suffering from similar plight. The designated quota of 6300 quintals of rice for this district has already been used up as the district faced terrible drought in the winter early this year resulting in acute dearth of food grains. The people of southern part of the district have started trekking for two days to the Sanfebagar, the headquarters of neighboring Achham district, to get food from government godowns.

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After it ran out of stocks, the Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) has shut down its godown in Simikot, the headquarters of the district. Reports say that the Chief District Officer (CDO) has stopped distributing coupons to the people who are thronging at Simikot to buy food. People trek for days to reach Simikot with the hope of getting food. CDO Hum Prasad Adhikari has said, “Never in my tenure had I ever confronted with such shortage.” Every day a large number of people from Maila, Srinagar, Madana and Kalika VDC of southern region of the district arrive at Simikot in search of food.

Due to the Maoist insurgency, NFC has withdrawn dozens of its depot from outlying parts of several northwestern, mid-western and far western district. In Humla district, the NFC had withdrawn its two depots four years ago. “Winter harvest was very bad. There is nothing to eat in the villages,” said Nanda Bahadur Rokaya, a resident of Srinagar Village of southern Humla, who trekked for five days to reach the Humla district headquarters of Simikot in search of food.

Megh Raj Joshi of Bajura district wonders for how long this scarcity will continue. As most people of the region like Joshi cannot depend on their agriculture production (of their own fields) beyond three months, the scarcity has become rampant. “We are worried for how long people like us have to think about food problems,” said Joshi.

Local people complain that the Maoists have even prevented their movement from villages. Many of them have no money to buy food and have started selling off their cattle or working as wage-laborers to earn enough to buy food for their family.

In the first week of July, the Maoists looted three trucks of food grains that were being transported to Achham district where also people are suffering from food shortage. Claiming that the district is shut down for three days, the Maoists returned the buses and other vehicles heading to the district. However, they took hold of the three trucks carrying the food grains. The food grain belonged to the World Food Program (WFP).

Districts like Achham, Bajura, Mugu, Humla, Jumla, Kalikot, Dolpa and Rolpa are suffering from food shortage. The residents of these perennially food-deficit districts are thronging at the district headquarters queuing up at the food distribution centers of the NFC. The NFC has withdrawn dozens of its food depots and concentrated them at district headquarters. After the breakdown of ceasefire last year, the NFC had immediately withdrawn half a dozen such depots from the region.

The NFC has its reasons for withdrawing its depots since the Maoists have targeted them in the past. In April 2002 Maoist rebels looted 228 quintals of food grains from the Binayak depot of Bajura. Likewise, hundreds of quintals of grains were looted from a depot in Kolti of the same district around October 2001.

Officials at the NFC say that every year they need to supply around 100,000 quintals of rice to deficit districts. In the year 2003, the NFC supplied only 61,000 quintals of rice. “About 31 of the total 75 districts in Nepal are food-deficit meaning that the production of food in these districts cannot fulfill the demand of their residents,” said a senior official at the NFC, who did not wish to be named. “This year we are still waiting to see how the maize production in these food-deficit hilly districts will turn out. Initial reports show that districts like Bajura, Achham and Humla will suffer the most. However, we can give you comprehensive projection of the state of food shortage only after looking at the final maize production,” said the official. Most of the hilly districts in Nepal depend on maize as staple diet.

The government gives subsidy to the NFC in the food transportation. The NFC, on its part, buys food from some districts and sells it at fair price to the food-deficit districts.

“The government is planning to make the process of food transportation smooth so that the people do not have to suffer,” said Dr. Shankar Sharma, vice chairperson of the National Planning Commission (NPC) – the apex planning body.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari has also promised to end the problem. “The government is aware of the food shortage. In this year’s budget, the government has increased the amount it provides to the NFC for food transportation. Likewise, we will also step up our efforts of distributing salt to the districts of the north-western region that are having its shortage,” said Adhikari. He, however, did not specify by how much amount the budget has been increased.

Last year, the government had increased the budget for Food For Work (FFW) program to around US$ 1.66 million. The FFW is carried out with the financial and material help of the World Food Program (WFP), which supplements the program with assistance worth around US$ 4 million. Other donors like GTZ, German agency, and DFID, British agency, also support the program. The WFP along with the Ministry of Local Development also carries out Rural Community Infrastructure Work (RCIW) in which people are provided with food assistance for working in infrastructure construction like small bridges, roads, trails and so on.

“Among the world’s least developed nations, an estimated 42 percent of Nepal’s population live below the poverty line and more than one third consume less than 2,250 kcal per day. Maternal mortality is one of the highest in the world at 540 per 100,000 live births, adult literacy among the lowest at less than 60 percent, with pronounced gender and regional disparities in school enrolment. Rugged terrain and limited rural infrastructure constrain the ability of poor rural communities to generate income and develop,” states the WFP country report.

Furthermore, 48.3 percent of all children under the age of five are underweight and 50.5 percent are stunted.

The WFP has come up with the Nepal Country Program (2002-06) aimed at bringing about sustainable improvements in food security for the most disadvantaged, particularly women and children, in highly food-insecure areas. According to an official at the WFP/Nepal office, the program focuses on providing support to the community infrastructure projects that will improve access and enhance the self-help capabilities of poor communities in remote areas. “We are also engaged in school feeding program to encourage enrolment and attendance and providing nutritional support for mothers and children using community-based and outreach services,” Kishore Aryal, program officer of WFP/Nepal.

Aryal said that for the five year period of 2002-06, it has set aside US$ 22.79 million for its Food for Work program.

Revenue Tribunal Discussion

Nepal Law Society organized a discussion program on the proposed draft of new Revenue Tribunal Act and Revenue Tribunal Regulations on July 25.

With the objective of updating the old act, which was framed in 2031 B.S. (1975 AD), the Society had organized the program by gathering all the stakeholders including top government officials, legal luminaries as well as business representatives.

“Although related laws like Customs Act, Income Tax Act, VAT Act and so on have been updated, we are sticking to the same old Revenue Tribunal Act. In order to fine tune the act to make it more attuned to the present realities, we are discussing the draft,” said Krishna Man Pradhan, executive director of the Society.

The Revenue Tribunal is a body that is authorized to give decisions regarding disputes related to tax, revenue and so on.

Anil Kumar Sinha, advocate and secretary at the Society, presented the characteristics of the new proposed act. Experts and legal brains concurred that there is an urgent need to update the old act.

“Our intention is to come up with a modern act that is in conformity with the changed context,” said Baidhya Nath Upadhyaya, chairman of the Revenue Tribunal, Kathmandu. Upadhyaya is also involved in the drafting of the new act.

The new proposed draft has attempted to bring about different changes including in the composition of the tribunal. The draft proposed three members of the Tribunal, which will be based in Kathmandu, including a senior judge (as its chairman), and two members who will be chosen from the accounting and revenue background.

During the program, experts provided inputs to make the new act more reasonable. Finance Secretary Bhanu Acharya, Law Secretary Kul Ratna Bhurtel, director generals of Income Tax Department, Customs Department, senior lawyers and other experts were present in the program.