![\"\"](\"https:\/\/english.nepalpostkhabar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/thumb-12.jpg\")
Mugu – Tara Chanda Chaulagain of Kalai village in Soru Rural Municipality, Mugu, has not received any subsidised rice in the past eight months. The Food Management and Trading Company Limited has its sales centre in this remote village of Karnali Province but the centre, according to Chaulagain, has not provided subsidised rice to the locals since March.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came to know that the federal government sends subsidised rice to Kalai village every year. But we hardly get the subsidised food grains. We don\u2019t know where the rice goes,\u201d said Chaulagain.<\/p>\n
In the absence of rice at the food depot, Chaulagain and other impoverished villagers in Kalai have been buying rice from local traders at a much higher price than they would from the depot.<\/p>\n
Kalai, which has around 400 households, suffers from food insecurity. The local food production\u2014mainly wheat, maize and millet\u2014hardly lasts six months, say locals.<\/p>\n
The village has a sizable Dalit population and almost all have limited income to see them through the year. \u201cWe are always suffering because there\u2019s never enough food,\u201d said Chaulagain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a sales centre in the village just for the sake of it. We are always waiting for subsidised rice, as it is cheaper than the one that we buy from the market. But the rice hardly arrives here,\u201d said Khummeni Jaisi, a local woman.<\/p>\n
The subsidised Aruwa Mota rice and Japanese rice cost Rs 49 and 52 per kilogram respectively in the sales centre of the Food Management and Trading Company Limited in Kalaigaun. Jaisi said she had to buy the same brand of rice at Rs 60 to 65 per kilogram in the local market.<\/p>\n
Last week, reports surfaced of a consignment of subsidised rice meant for Kalai village being exported to Bhaktapur in Bagmati Province from Birendranagar, the provincial capital in Surkhet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never see subsidised rice here in the village but we are told that the government allocates subsidised grains to our village every year,\u201d said Panch BK of Kalai. \u201cWe had suspected that subsidised rice meant for our village were being sold elsewhere and the recent incident has justified our doubts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Security personnel on October 29 had\u00a0seized a truck carrying sacks of subsidised rice<\/a>\u00a0meant for Kalai village of Mugu in Karnali Province to Bhaktapur in Bagmati Province. Surkhet-based Sharma Transportation Service was sending 250kgs of subsidised rice to Bhaktapur instead of sending it to Mugu. The incident is being\u00a0investigated<\/a>\u00a0by the Karnali Province government, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority and the police.<\/p>\n A good quantity of subsidised rice is provided to the food depot in Kalai village every year. According to the data available at the Surkhet Office of the Food Management and Trading Company Limited, a total of 1,800 quintals of rice had been allocated to Kalai in the last fiscal year while 700 quintals were allocated in the fiscal year 2018\/19.<\/p>\n In the current fiscal year, the company has allocated a total of 3,000 quintals of rice to Kalai. As of October 21, Sharma Transportation Service had received 1,100 quintals of rice to be transported to Kalai. Two hundred and fifty quintals of the subsidised rice was seized from Subbakuna in Surkhet while being exported to Bhaktapur on October 29. Around 60 quintals of subsidised rice is in a godown of Sharma Transportation Service in Surkhet.<\/p>\n A total of 180 quintals of subsidised rice reached Kalai village after the anti-graft body and the provincial government initiated an investigation into the illegal export and sales of subsidised rice meant for Mugu. However, the recently arrived rice has yet to be received by the food company.<\/p>\n According to an employee at the Mugu Office of Food Management and Trading Company Limited, 330 quintals of subsidised rice has arrived in Kalai and Gamgadhi, the district headquarters of Mugu, in the past week.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stock arrived here after the authorities initiated an investigation into the illegal export of subsidised rice meant for Mugu to Bhaktapur. The transportation company might have brought the rice in haste to avoid legal action,\u201d he said, preferring anonymity. According to him, the Mugu office has not officially received the food grains yet.<\/p>\n The contract to supply subsidised rice to Kalai was awarded to Sharma Transportation Service two years ago. Prior to that, in the fiscal year 2018\/19, the contract had been awarded to Himal Construction Service of Mugu.<\/p>\n The sales centre in Kalai provides rice to the locals of Kalai, Siddi, Khanaya, Nuwakot, Gilaha and Rum, among other villages of Mugu. School teachers, government employees and security personnel are also dependent on the rice provided by the food company.<\/p>\n