Rolpa, September 23:

Famished Rolpa folks are being forced to queue up for hours to get rice from the district office of Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) in Liwang.

Hundreds of people from different parts of the district are seen standing in queue at the NFC office in Liwang early in the morning.

“We have been starving for a long time. We don’t even have stock of maize in our villages,” Ramkali Pun (35), a resident of Korchawang, said yesterday.

The NFC office distributes rice on Mondays and Thursdays. “Large number of people are seeking food as the district has been reeling under food shortage for long,” a source at the NFC office said.

The NFC office has been providing 10 kg of rice per family of Liwang and 30 kg per family from other VDCs. People need to submit recommendation from their respective VDCs to get the rice from the NFC office. But locals say that they are having hard times getting recommendations from the VDCs as the VDC secretaries remain out of the villages most of the time.

“Not only in NFC office, villagers have also started queuing up at VDC offices to get recommendations,” said Indra Bahadur Gharti, secretary of Ransi VDC.

The district office of NFC has been distributing some 200 quintals of rice every week. It has been selling Japanese rice at Rs 25 per kg.

The NFC office in Liwang is also distributing rice that used to be distributed from Ghartigaun depot in the past. The Ghartigaun depot has remained closed since 2000 after a Maoist raid.