Nepal sells donated rice meant for quake victims at reduced price

KATHMANDU, July 6 (Xinhua) — Tonnes of rice donated by China and Bangladesh meant for delivering to the earthquake victims are being sold in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.
Considering that the donated rice could be rotten due to prolonged storage after failing to distribute them among the quake victims, the Nepalese government recently took decision of selling them in the market.
As per the government’s decision, the state-owned Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) has started selling around 1,730 tonnes of rice in the Kathmandu Valley. It has also planned to sell additional donated rice in other major cities.
“We started selling the rice for the last two weeks as there was high chance that the rice could rotten if kept in warehouse for more time,” NFC spokesperson Pawan Kumar Karki told Xinhua.
The company has set up mobile teams that are moving from place to place selling the rice at reduced price compared to market rate.
There were reports that some of the rice brought from Bangladesh had started to rot.
Immediately after the earthquake on April 25, 2015, China and Bangladesh had donated around 10,030 tonnes of rice to distribute among the earthquake victims in 14 worst affected districts.
Even after more than a year since donation was provided, the Nepalese government only distributed around 2,600 tonnes to the needy people from quake-affected zones while the rest remained in the NFC’s warehouses.
Out of remaining rice, the NFC dispatched 3,400 tonnes to five districts in the Karnali region in the far western part of the country which has been facing food crisis in the recent months due to prolonged drought.
As per the government’s plan, the rice will be distributed under ‘food for work program’ to the people of Karnali.
The people from the area will be mobilized in the road construction program and will be given rice as the payment.