BAJURA: A meeting of the District Food Management Committee has requested the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Kathmandu and Nepal Food Corporation, Dhangadhi to establish a supply centre in the district’s most remote village of Himali, in a bid to end the ongoing food crisis.

According to Chief District Officer Chet Raj Baral, authorities have called for establishing the food supply centre at Bajura's most remote - Himali Rural Municipality-1, Bichhaya - and making it accessible to 4000 households that are facing acute rice shortages in the region.

Recurring food crisis trouble denizens of the most remote villages in the region that lacks road connectivity, each year.

Moreover, the locals of Bichhiya are impelled to hike down for two days to Kawadi Depot at ward 5 in the Rural Municipality to fetch rice.

This year, after a break down in supply owing to supplier’s inability to deliver government subsidised rice in the stipulated time, Himali Rural Municipality has been reeling under food shortages and denizens say they will now have to rely on Sisno (nettle leaves) to live through the day.

“I walked two days to arrive at Kawadi Depot to fetch rice but I am returning to the village without a single grain,” Junkala Budha of Bichhiya said, “With no rice in the kitchen, my family must now gather and eat Sisno, and till when, we do not know.”

The local production lasts barely two months and the denizens rely on subsidised rice for the rest of the year.

“We are constantly buzzing the provincial and central governments to establish Bichhaya Depot.” Chair Gobindra Bahadur Malla of Himali said, “The local production is well below the subsistence level and geographic remoteness of the village makes supply logistically challenging and intermittent.”

For over a month, locals have been deprived of rice in their kitchen after contractors failed to replenish the stock at Kawadi Depot.

READ ALSO:

• No rice supply leaves Bajura villagers high and dry