Biratnagar, April 14:

Apprehending drought due to hail and Daduwa disease in crops, people in Bhojpur and Sankhuwasabha districts are demanding that foodstuff be provided early to ward off starvation.

Already there is scarcity of food in nine VDCs of Sankhuwasabha district as hailstones caused damage to paddy crop in October. There is also a lack of food in most of the northern and southern parts of Sankhuwasabha district.

The shortage-hit people are demanding that jobs, food, seeds, fertilisers be provided, interest on bank loans be exempted, relief programmes be launched and irrigation facilities provided. Hailstones, Daduwa disease and drought have caused damage to food crops and cash crops belonging to some 33,000 households in Bhojpur, coordinator of the District Disaster Sub-Committee, Jhurendra Parajuli said, adding that the committee has decided to demand that the government declare the district drought-affected and provide immediate relief. Meanwhile, the zonal office of Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) here has supplied 2,300 quintals of rice to the remote districts of the eastern region.

The NFC zonal office began supplying the rice after a special quota was demanded as there was reduced production of paddy due to hailstones in Bhojpur and Sankhuwasabha, chief at the NFC zonal office Tikaram Rai said, adding that the rice was supplied as per the decision of the DAO of the respective districts and the eight political parties. Some 2,211 and 1,448 quintals of rice have been supplied to Bhojpur and Sankhuwasabha districts respectively, Rai said.

Meanwhile, NFC said there is no plan of re-establishing its depots that were merged with district and zonal offices due to security reasons during the conflict. There were NFC depots at Dingla, Hatuwa and Mandanda of Bhojpur district; Chainpur and Hatiyagola of Sankhuwasabha district; Dandabazaar, Aankhisalla and Budhabare of Dhankuta district and Sakranti of Terathum district.